Return of the Flash
by Kamikaze132
Summary: What if Naruto was more intelligent than he was in the canon. What if he was more like his father than his mother, both in looks and personality? Smart and powerful Naruto! NarutoxTemari! Hiraishin Naruto! COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Author's note : This is my new story guys! Hope you like it. Please follow and review guys. It will give me inspiration to continue doing this!**

Naruto Uzumaki was not a normal boy by any means. Naruto Uzumaki wasn't your run-of-the-mill orphan. He was, as every orphan was, without a parent. He was, as every orphan was, lonely. He was, as every orphan was, sad. He wasn't, as almost every orphan was, looked at with pity and kindness, however.

No, Naruto Uzumaki was looked at with disdain and hatred. Simply walking down the streets incurred several cruel beatings. He had no idea why, but the entire population of Konohagakure no Sato seemed to hate him. He had very few precious people, in fact the only ones he could name of the top of his head were Hiruzen Sarutobi, or as he had dubbed the Hokage, jiji, Ayame, a girl who helped her father run a nearby ramen shop, and Teuchi, the father of said girl. It was sad actually, a boy his age, five, being hated by everyone.

Naruto had learnt this early on in life. He was hated in the orphanage he lived in as well. Ever since he learnt to walk on his own, the matron of the orphanage started treating him like trash. He was not allowed to play with the children of his age and even when he managed to talk to them, they would sneer at him and told him, in no uncertain words, that a monster like him was not welcome in their group. He would get sad and then leave.

Walking the streets of the village was like trial by fire for him. He had to take careful measures to remain as unnoticeable as possible. If he got noticed, a civilian would point at him, shouting to others, "The demon is here! Get him!" He would then run for his life, entering lanes and alleys, taking a shortcut through a shop, entering from the front door and exiting from the back, anything to get escape the beatings.

But it was suspicious that a four year old boy was able to escape from the mobs. What no one, including Naruto, knew that Naruto had some special quirks.

Naruto had an eidetic memory, the ability to remember and recall anything he sees or hear once, in great detail. Naruto loved to read books, but didn't know why he could recall every page of the book, down to the exact words. He found it very useful and abused it shamelessly, reading all the books he was allowed to and then some, without telling anyone of course. He didn't tell this to anybody, not even jiji, fearing if this got out, he would get beaten for having 'freakish traits'.

But he also discovered the downside of having such an ability. One day, when running from a mob, he accidentally entered an alley which had a dead end. There was no escape for him that day.

He was punched, kicked on every part of his body, until he fell unconscious. When he woke up, very mysteriously, in his room at the orphanage, healed up, he was very happy he did not die. However, when he tried to sleep that night, the beatings came back in full force in the form of nightmares. Because of his ability, he experienced the beatings down to the last detail. He couldn't sleep peacefully for several nights.

Another one of his quirks was a sort of sensory ability. He could sense danger if it was coming to him. However, it was a subconscious ability of sorts, activating only when he was in danger. But it was very useful in avoiding punches and stones that came when his back was turned.

The village's behavior in general towards Naruto caused him to develop a need for positive attention, but also a need to avoid people, preferring to keep to himself. He would not actively seek attention, but he would latch on like a leech to anyone who gave some form of caring to him. Sadly, the number of people who did could be counted on one hand.

That was the reason he turned to books. At least they didn't attack him outright and allowed him to read them. Almost no one wanted to associate with him, leading him to take refuge in books. They became his best friends, always making him smile when he learnt something new.

Naruto had to force himself to learn reading and writing as the teachers at the orphanage did as less as they could to help him. They would simply thrust the books in hands, and go away to help other children. He learnt early not to ask questions, receiving physical punishment whenever he did.

He had read about various topics, but the one thing that stood out to him was the topic of Hokage. How the Hokage was the most powerful shinobi in the village and was responsible for the village's safety.

He read how powerful was the Shodai Hokage, with his unique kekkei genkai (Bloodline limit) of _Mokuton_, the wood release. He was said to be the most powerful shinobi of his time, known as _'Shinobi no Kami'_, the god of shinobi. Hashirama Senju, along with Madara Uchiha were the two main founders of Konoha. Ironically, both were also bitter enemies, with Hashirama having to kill Madara to protect the village.

The Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was the younger brother of Hashirama. He was and is still hailed as the most powerful Suiton (Water release) user of all time. He was also hailed the fastest shinobi of his time, having created the famous _'Hiraishin no jutsu'_. He was the one who started the Ninja academy. Naruto took a liking to him as he loved anything that was even remotely associated with speed.

The Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, that was his jiji, was known as '_The Professor', _because he could use all the nature transformations and had the unsurpassed knowledge of ninjutsu, knowing all the techniques in Konoha, save for clan techniques. He also shared the title of _'Shinobi no Kami' _with Hashirama, because in his prime he was the strongest of all Kages. Naruto was astounded how powerful was the man he called his jiji. Sarutobi was also the sensei of the _'Densetsu no Sannin'_, the three legendary ninjas, who were among the most powerful shinobi in the world.

The Yondaime Hokage was the one who became his favorite to the point that Naruto considered him as his idol, aspiring to be like him. Minato Namikaze, when he was alive, was considered the strongest of the Hokages and arguably, the most dangerous man to have graced the world of shinobi. Known as _'Konoha no Kiroi Senko'_, he was also considered the fastest shinobi to have ever lived. He was famous because he took the hiraishin no jutsu, the jutsu used by the Nidaime, to levels unheard of. He was the one who single-handedly ended the Third Great Shinobi War, finishing of a thousand Iwa shinobi by himself, in the battle of Kannabi Bridge.

Naruto also took note that the Yondaime suspiciously looked very much like him if he grew up. Naruto compared their physical traits, more specifically those that stood out the most. They were both blonde, the hair color being near identical, with Naruto's a shade brighter. But the eyes were what took him by surprise. Those azure blue shades were what he had as well, looking back at him in the mirror every day. He became even more suspicious.

During one of his outings, when his jiji came to take him to the Ichiraku Ramen that he loved so much, he asked him what it meant to be Hokage.

_**Flashback**_

_The old man stopped eating and looked at him, his eyes piercing him as if searching for something. He then smiled and said, "Perhaps you should ask me first, Naruto-kun, that what does it mean to be a shinobi?"_

_Naruto looked surprised for a moment but recovered and asked, "What does it mean to be a shinobi?"_

_This time jiji answered, "To be a shinobi means to endure. A shinobi is one who can follow or lead others into any darkness and work together to overcome that darkness and make it out the other side. A shinobi walks towards danger when everyone else is running away, that is because it is the duty of a shinobi to look at any foe and simply say; "Bring it". That is because shinobi exist to protect those who can't protect themselves."_

_Naruto had a look of wonder on his face. He had no idea jiji was that wise. An answer like that changed Naruto's entire view of shinobi. At first he thought that being a shinobi only meant performing cool jutsus and fighting in the name of your village. He had no idea the answer would be this deep in meaning._

_Sarutobi looked at Naruto and mentally smiled. He knew about Naruto's treatment by the villagers and his drive to be Hokage. He mused, perhaps I can give him a little insight on what being a Hokage means._

_Naruto recovered from his wonder and stared at his empty bowl, deep in thought. If this is what being a shinobi meant, then he had a pretty good idea on what being a Hokage meant._

_He was snapped out of his thoughts when jiji said, "Now that that answer is out of the way, I can tell you what Being a Hokage-"_

"_I know jiji."_

_Those words stopped Hiruzen in his tracks, his head tilting in curiosity. "You know what, Naruto-kun?"_

_Naruto looked up, understanding and respect in his eyes. Hiruzen was touched at the respect he was receiving from Naruto, but his curiosity was increasing. "What being a Hokage means."_

_Hiruzen stared at him, silently asking him to continue. Naruto spoke up, "The Hokage is responsible for everything in this village. It's his responsibility to protect everyone here, and to make sure they are safe and happy with their village. He tends to the finances of this village, the rules, the daily events, everything. He controls every single ninja who bears a leaf headband, and basically directs when they live and die. This job is not for the faint of heart, and only for someone who loves this village deeply." At the end of his answer, he was staring back at his bowl._

_Hiruzen was shocked at the understanding Naruto showed of the position of Hokage. He had no idea that Naruto was this perceptive and knowledgeable. Teuchi and Ayame had stopped working as well, staring at the blonde with wide eyes along with the Hokage. It was simply unheard of, a five year old showing such a deep understanding of something most people don't understand until much later in life._

_Hiruzen was shocked so much that he didn't notice his jaw was hanging a bit. 'Such a deep perception and insight at such a young age', he thought with wonder. Only one person had showed such understanding like this and he too was three years older. Itachi Uchiha was a prodigy among the likes of Kakashi Hatake and Minato Namikaze. Such a shame he was now a missing nin._

_Naruto looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Jiji was looking at him with a strange expression, "That is exactly what being Hokage means, Naruto-kun."_

_A challenging smile broke out on Naruto's face and he declared, "Then I will become Hokage someday, jiji! And not just any Hokage! I will be the strongest there will be!"_

_Hiruzen chuckled, which soon turned to laughter. The father and daughter on the other side of the counter were also smiling fondly._

_Naruto frowned, "What? I am serious!" He was a little hurt that jiji saw his declaration as a joke._

_Hiruzen soon calmed down, smiling fondly at the boy. He remembered another Uzumaki who used to say the same thing. But he had a strong feeling that Naruto would be right. He ruffled Naruto's head, "I know Naruto-kun, I have no doubt you will."_

_**Flashback end**_

Ever since that day, Naruto studied even more rigorously and beginning physical training as well. Granted, a four year old such as him could not do much, but he did his best. He ran 4 rounds around the village, did every exercise he could think of and practiced his kunai and shurikenjutsu. He took those weapons by sneaking into the practice grounds and collecting them.

To his surprise, the art of throwing shuriken and kunai came very naturally to him. He started throwing after taking a book about weapons left behind on a training ground. He had shaken his head at the disrespect shown to the book, but took it with him anyway. Just two weeks of practice and he was throwing all bullseyes.

That was not the only surprising thing. He had found that he could recover very quickly from physical exhaustion and wear and tear on his muscles. He recalled that he recovered surprisingly quickly after the beating from the villagers. _'A bloodline perhaps?'_ He didn't dwell on it further, but filed it away for later.

But today was special. So special that he would have to take extra measures in staying safe. Because today was his birthday, and he was just kicked out of the orphanage. Roaming in the streets, he suspected what would happen in the evening.

Today was the day the villagers celebrated as the Kyuubi festival, the day the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi and the day he would be beaten within an inch of his life or hunted and possibly killed.

An epiphany struck him like lightning, causing him to suddenly stop in middle of the street.

Yondaime…. Kyuubi's defeat…treatment of the villagers…..demon boy….jiji's avoidance of the topic

_No, he wouldn't….._

Naruto ran from the street, meandering between people with the grace of a seasoned dancer or flowing water. He ran like it was no one's business, reaching his favorite spot, the head of the Yondaime, in record time. Anyone who saw him, had flashbacks of another blonde running like a man possessed.

'_I need to confirm whether it's true or not'_, he thought grimly, afraid of what he would find. He sat down on the head of the famed Hokage in a meditative posture and reached within or rather, _spoke _within.

'_Kyuubi, if you are inside me, I want to meet you, please'_, for a full five minutes there was no reply and Naruto was beginning to relax when something _pulled_ on his mind.

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself in a dark corridor. He narrowed his eyes. _'Is this my mindscape?'_, he thought in disgust as he walked forward. He kept walking for a few minutes and stopped seeing some light at the end of the corridor. It seemed to pull him towards it. _'Time to find out what is at the end'_, with that thought, he walked again, stopping only until the end.

It was a huge room, so large and vast it was that the ceiling was impossible to find. He looked around, his eyes seeing black stone and nothing more. But the elephant in the room was a large iron barred door, with a paper on it that said _**seal.**_

He gazed at the piece of paper, resignation written in his eyes. His azure eyes looked past the cage, looking for what he knew was in the cage. He was just waiting for the Kyuubi to open his eyes.

Based on what he had read, Kyuubi was a being of pure hatred and evil. A mindless beast capable of destruction on a scale hitherto undreamt of. But Naruto was skeptical when he read that. He might get to see it for himself now.

A growl sounded from the cage, sending a breath of hot air in Naruto's face.

Naruto steeled himself, in spite of the cage separating him from the beast within. An enormous red eye opened, causing Naruto to tense up. They eye looked at him, as if evaluating him. The eye then started to rise, causing Naruto to look up at the massive form.

The Kyuubi had orange, silky looking fur, with black markings around his eyes connected to his, funnily enough, rabbit like ears. The upper body was humanoid, including the hands. The lower body was just like a fox, barring the nine, long swaying tails in the back. Fire was the closest thing they looked like.

The red, slitted eyes looked him closely with a hint of malice. Naruto spoke first.

"Thank you for answering my call, Kyuubi", he said with a nod.

If Kyuubi was surprised, he didn't show it. Inside however, he was mighty shocked. This was not the first thing he expected his jailor to say. He expected him to look at him with fear, asking whether he really was the Kyuubi, following with the denial of the possibility. He did expect him to thank him at all.

He replied, **"Think nothing of it. I'm surprised though, that you were able to figure it out so quickly. Why aren't you surprised?"**, he asked with curiosity.

Naruto sat down in front of the cage, which surprised the great bijuu further. Naruto was showing that he was willing to relax in front of him.

"Well, I was, for a few moments at least. But it wasn't that difficult to figure out. It is easy to create a plausible theory once you have all the relevant facts", he said, never breaking eye contact with the Kyuubi.

Kyuubi raised a massive eyebrow, silently impressed with his host. His thought processes were very intelligent for someone who was only five-years old. He was bold as well, bold enough to maintain eye contact with him. He also could not sense any fear from the boy.

"**Why aren't you afraid of me?"**, he asked him.

Without a moment of hesitance Naruto answered, "Because you are misunderstood."

This time surprise was visible on Kyuubi's face, which was quickly followed by anger.

"**What did you just say? Chose your next words very carefully"**, he growled out.

Naruto wasted no time in answering, "In all the books I have read, they described you as a being of pure hatred. But that is only a one sided understanding, isn't it?", he asked with a sad smile.

Before Kyuubi could answer, Naruto continued, "Humans fear what they can't understand. The foremost aspect of your personality that they have seen is hatred, which, while a big part of you, conceals the being underneath that can feel emotions just like us. Isn't that right Kyuubi?"

Kyuubi was astounded at the amount of understanding his host showed towards him. Perhaps he could….

"**What do you want?"**

Naruto looked at him with his azure blues, reminding Kyuubi of another set of blues that looked at him fearlessly before sealing him.

"If you wouldn't mind", a hesitant smile appeared on Naruto's face, "Would you be my friend?"

Kyuubi was truly stupefied at the request. For the first time, in centuries of his existence, someone had asked if they could be his friend. Naruto saw that the Kyuubi was surprised and for the Kyuubi, if Naruto's request was not surprising enough, he was totally blown away by what Naruto did next.

Naruto got up from his spot and walked, _into the cage_. He walked up close and offered a hand for him to take.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and it is nice to meet you."

Kyuubi had abandoned all signs of remaining composed and was openly gaping at Naruto. But he composed himself quickly and gave a sincere smile to Naruto. Seeing Naruto was too small to even shake his finger, he extended his index nail to him.

"**My name is Kurama. Nice to meet you too, Naruto."**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Author's note : First order of business, I would like to thank all those who reviewed my story, but no offense, empetiness, I don't know if you are complimenting my story or it's sarcasm. Nevertheless, thanks for reviewing. Also, I have received requests for Naruto to have a harem. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. This is my first shot at a story that has the potential to reach 100k words. I am, in no way ready to take a shot at a harem. Also, what to you type in the google search bar that my story comes up? Please let me know! Now, onto the story! **

Naruto smiled, "You have a very nice name, Kurama."

The newly dubbed Kurama smiled,** "Thank you. It means a lot coming from someone whose name means fishcake"**, Kurama smirked at the end, intentionally making the jab at Naruto's name to see if he could rile the boy up.

His success was only miniscule though. Naruto only had a tiny frown on his face, instead of the full blown childish rage Kurama was expecting, "Actually, I prefer the other meaning of my name. 'Maelstrom' is much better than being compared to a fishcake, Kurama."

Kurama chuckled, a smooth, deep baritone that lit up a warm feeling inside Naruto. Naruto decided he liked Kurama's voice.

"**No one would think of a maelstrom when they look at you, Naruto. Perhaps when you are older, but certainly not now"**, Kurama teased him.

Naruto shrugged, and then his eyes turned serious, Making Kurama do the same.

Naruto asked the bijuu, "Kurama, you know I have questions, right?"

Kurama nodded, **"I assumed as such. However, I had expected us to meet when you were significantly older. I have to say; I was not expecting your call to me."**

Naruto shook his head, "Well, if it makes you feel better, I was not expecting you to pull me inside my mind", he said, absently noting that he was not wet at all, in spite of standing and sitting in the water.

Kurama returned to his earlier position, lying down, face on his paws/hands, **"I will do my best to answer whatever question you have, Naruto"**, he assured him.

Naruto gave him a nod of gratitude and sat down as well. "Okay, first question. Why does my mindscape represent a gutter or a sewer, whatever you want to call it?"

Kurama looked silent for a moment, after which a mischievous grin broke out on his face, exposing his sharp canines, **"You know what they say about people whose minds are in the gutter, right?"**

Naruto gave him a blank look, reminding Kurama that Naruto, however intelligent for his age, was still only five years old. Kurama's embarrassed blush would have been visible on his face if his fur were not orange. He cleared his throat loudly to avoid embarrassment.

"**Sorry Naruto, but I have no idea why your mindscape is a sewer. There is a theory that says that your mindscape is a reflection of your mental state. It could have been the psychological trauma that was given to you by the villagers, but why it is particularly a sewer, I don't know"**, he replied.

Naruto absorbed the information like a sponge and after a few seconds, he asked Kurama, "So, I have psychological trauma. I knew about that. Which means that even if I change the appearance of my mindscape to something else, there will always be something that represents the trauma, right?"

Kurama inclined his head in agreement, smiling a little, **"That's right. I have to say though, it's nice to talk to someone who is intelligent."**

Naruto's eyes visibly brightened up at the praise, giving a full blown smile to his newest friend. Kurama noted with some amusement the grin looked _very _similar to his own and a redhead.

Naruto jumped to his feet, "Your answer just confirmed something for me Kurama." His eyes had a mix of excitement and determination to them, as if he was about to do something new.

Naruto closed his eyes and clapped his hands together, face scrunched up in concentration. Kurama observed him quietly, wondering what his host was about to do.

Naruto snapped his eyes open after a few minutes, having envisioned what he was about to do. With a cry of "Ha!", he slammed his right hand on the ground. What happened next completely blew away his mind.

A wave of energy exploded from Naruto in all the directions, completely lighting up the mindscape and almost blinding Kurama. **'Was it chakra that exploded from him? How is that even possible when he hasn't even unlocked it yet? That pulse of chakra completely shredded everything it came in contact with! Naruto may have possibly destroyed his own mind!' **were the thought running through Kurama's head.

When he opened his eyes, however, he was stupefied to a degree he didn't think was possible. His eyes were wide, his jaw was hanging, making him look quite comical.

A beautiful valley greeted his eyes. Grounds that were lush and a shade of green that that looked heavenly, streams with water clearer than he had ever seen. The grass felt soft under his limbs and there was a massive oak tree with a shade that made it great for naps. The cage around him had disappeared, instead replaced with a collar which had the same piece of paper from before with the kanji for _seal _written on it. He looked at Naruto in wonder. This kid was a package of one surprise after another.

Naruto got up from his position, looking no worse for wear. He smiled satisfactorily, "This is so much better than before! Wouldn't you agree, Kurama?" he asked, turning to him.

Kurama was smiling like he was the happiest being on Earth. No one had ever done anything for him, and Naruto, who had just met him, had already done so much for him.

Kurama looked at Naruto with gratitude in his eyes, **"Thank you, Naruto. You have no idea how much this means to me."**

Naruto just shook his head at him, "Don't worry about it. We are friends, right?"

Kurama nodded, feeling excitement in a long time, wanting to explore what Naruto had created for him. He was about to leave when Naruto's voice stopped him, mid-step.

"However, it seems strange that there is no presence of a celestial body in the sky. I had envisioned it just like outside", he mused, a frown on his five year old face that would have earned him so many squeals of "Kawai!" from girls.

Kurama too wondered what the reason could be, and quickly figured it out. He looked up in thought, **"Perhaps it is because of the seal", **he muttered.

Naruto looked up at him, confusion written clear on his face, "What do you mean?"

Kurama looked down at Naruto, **"The seal that keeps me inside you, Naruto. If it was only you, you would have had absolute control over your mindscape. But since I am here as well, the control gets divided equally. However, control on my side is restricted because of this seal. The absence of the sun or the moon that you envisioned could signify that this place is cut off from my senses. In easier terms, the outside world"**, he explained.

Naruto processed Kurama's answer. If the seal was restricting Kurama's activity…..

"What do you propose I should do, Kurama?"

Kurama put his hand under his chin. He could see only one way around this, and if Naruto messed up, it could spell trouble for both of them. But he would try his best to not let that happen.

"**You would have to tear off a **_**very **_**small piece of paper on my collar. Leave the rest to me"**, Kurama assured him.

When Naruto looked a bit hesitant, Kurama told him, **"Don't worry Naruto. You can do it. If something goes wrong, I will take care of it."**

The reassurance erased any doubt from Naruto's face and he promptly marched up to Kurama's collar, making sure to tear only the smallest piece of paper.

Kurama nodded in satisfaction and approval. He could feel a tiny bit of control get back to him. Just a snap of his fingers and a sun appeared in the sky, lighting up the valley, making it even more beautiful.

Naruto smiled at the sight, but it faded at the sight of a cave that he instinctively knew not to go near.

He turned back to Kurama, who had an expression of curiosity on his face, **"Naruto, what was that wave of energy that exploded from you earlier? And how did you know how to change your mindscape?"**

Naruto gave him an innocent look, "It is my mind, Kurama. I can make anything happen in here. As for the energy wave", his expression turned sheepish and he rubbed the back of his head, reminding him of the boy's mother who had the same habit, "It just seemed cooler than simply changing the surroundings in the blink of an eye."

This time it was Kurama who gave him a blank look. A sweatdrop appeared on the side of his head at the sheepish laugh of his host. He shook his head, it seemed Naruto like to be a dramatic smartass. He concentrated and nodded in satisfaction. He could now sense chakra signatures of almost the whole village. Once Naruto opened his eyes, Kurama would be able to see as well.

"**Nevertheless, you have my thanks. Allow me to repay with something that will come in very handy once you become a shinobi"**, Kurama smiled, raising a fingernail and very gently touching Naruto's forehead. The nail shined for a moment and then faded back.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What was that?"

Kurama smiled mysteriously, **"Why don't you discover it yourself? I can feel several chakra signatures closing in on you. Time for you to open your eyes, Naruto."**

Naruto nodded and turned to leave, but froze. He slowly turned around and smiled embarrassedly, "How do I leave?"

Kurama had to squash the urge to facepalm. It seemed that Naruto had his moments of stupidity every now and then, **"Just jump into the water, fishcake"**, he said exasperatedly.

Naruto frowned at 'fishcake', but nodded and with a leap that was impossible for any child his age, jumped into the water. Kurama shook his head, amused. It was only because Naruto was in his own mind that he was able to do so.

'**Perhaps I should have told him that he could get out with just a thought'**, he mused. Then he removed that thought immediately, **'Nah, it's too much fun messing with him.'**

XXXXXXX

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, without a hurry. He was thinking about what gift did Kurama give him when he felt it. Like something, no _someone_ was coming his way. He slowly turned his head around, face paling at the sight.

Dozens of people, knives, clubs, crowbars in hand, excited expressions on their faces, shouting, "TODAY IS THE DAY YOU DIE, DEMON!" "WE WILL FININSH WHAT THE YONDAIME STARTED, AND WE WILL AVENGE HIM!" Naruto's expression had turned utterly horrified. There was only one way to get off the monument without falling splat on the pavement.

Outrun and outmaneuver the mob.

He wasted no time. He kipped up to his feet and immediately started running in a perpendicular direction to the mob. Since he had been running regularly for one year, he had built up some pretty good speed and endurance.

His plan was to take a wide arc around the mob and as soon as it was behind him, hightail it into the streets where he could lose them. He took off into the forest, the mob following him closely behind. As he began to cut an arc around the mob, hairs on the back of his neck stood up, a clear sign of danger. However, unlike before when he could only detect danger, this time he could feel the direction the weapon was coming from.

Naruto was an imaginative child. From where he had developed his imagination, no one knew. But there was one thing about his imagination that even HE knew was not normal. His body had the most unnatural and peculiar ability of following the commands of his mind down to a T. As soon as he had sensed the knives' speeding at him, he thought of only one escape scenario, and his body followed it as it did before several times, just not in a life and death scenario.

He jumped, body in the air, rotating like a screwdriver, the knives going under him, missing him by just a few inches. He rolled on the ground to soften his landing, and continued running away, successfully getting the mob behind him and the road in front of him.

He managed to get to the streets, where he purposefully chose the market street where he could lose them. He knew the civilians could not do the tricks that he could. He vaulted neatly over several carts without losing momentum, each time increasing the gap between him and the mob. He turned left at an intersection, and jumped up a wall, hanging on the other side until he was sure the sounds of the mob faded away. He jumped back on the road.

He took a moment to catch a breath. If he was not mistaken, he had run at full speed for close to 3 miles. **'Impressive for a five year old'**, the familiar voice of Kurama sounded in his head. Naruto looked surprised for a moment, but then shook his head. It was probably because of the change that he had done to the seal. He also chalked it up to adrenaline that he had run so far and fast.

That was a lot difficult than he had imagined, but he blamed it on his clothes. An orange jumpsuit stuck out like a sore thumb among the masses. It was as if he had stuck a piece of paper behind his back saying, "Kill me!" The blonde hair wasn't helping either.

But then again, he had nothing else to wear. The keepers at the orphanage looked very satisfied when they had given him the jumpsuit. They probably wanted him to be spotted in case he attempted to hide from a mob. Too bad they underestimated him.

So deep he was in his musings that he didn't notice he had entered an area of Konoha, no one had taken a stroll in for at least five years. He looked when he saw he was standing before the gates of a beautiful mansion.

'**Naruto, open the gates of the mansion. Let's explore'**, Kurama's excited voice sounded in his head.

Naruto shook his head, 'I would be an idiot to even touch the gate. Can't you see all the seals engraved on it?'

Kurama insisted, **'Do it. Who knows, you might get a surprise.'**

Naruto frowned at the behavior of the fox, but followed his advice anyway. He placed his hand on the seal of the gate and closed his eyes, as if waiting to be blown up. He didn't notice the seals glow slightly.

He opened his eyes when nothing happened. Tentatively, he pushed the gate and to his surprise, it opened easily. 'The seals must be malfunctioning if a strange like me could enter in here', he thought.

The mansion was beautiful. It was a traditional two-story mansion, surrounded by lush, green grounds. There was even a small pond with clear water in front of the house.

'Whoever this house belongs to must be insanely wealthy', he thought with wonder. Money was something that was rarely available to him. He decided not to dwell on it further.

As he approached the front door, he began to think it was a bad idea coming here. What if someone spotted him? What if he accidentally activated a trap?

He cautiously turned the doorknob, hearing it click open. He opened the door fully, seeing the dark living room with a sofa and comfortable chairs. He turned on the light, surprised that electricity still flowed in the circuits of the house. But it was all covered in a thick layer of dust.

'The owner has been gone for a long time, but why?', he wondered. As he turned in the direction of the fireplace, he stopped short at what he saw.

The first thing that caught his eye was the uniquely shaped kunai embedded in a stone slab placed on top of the fireplace. Every shinobi or to-be shinobi worth his or her salt would recognize the tri-pronged kunai.

It was the Yondaime's kunai. He now knew that this house belonged to the deceased Hokage.

Crap.

He had just broken into the Yondaime's house.

Double crap.

He was just about to turn tail when Kurama's voice sounded in his head, **'What's that?'**

He turned around again, seeing the portrait above the fireplace for the first time. It was Minato Namikaze, decked out in full Hokage uniform, along with a beautiful redhead wearing a high-collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress with a wristband on her left wrist and standard shinobi sandals. A medium-sized bulge on her stomach made him realize that she was pregnant. But that was not what caught his eye.

The redhead was waving a peace sign, with a _very _familiar grin. The same one he wore whenever his mischievous tendencies surfaced or when he was really happy. Her face was also very similar looking to his own. Her exquisite violet eyes were shaped just like his eyes.

With a jolt, the pieces of a puzzle that he could never solve arranged themselves, forming a long sought-after answer.

Blonde hair….azure blue eyes…..the familiar grin…..same shape face….identically shaped eyes

He had just found out the identities of his parents. **'Congratulations, kid. You finally found them'**, Kurama's smooth voice was softer this time.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Thank you for everyone who reviewed! Empetiness, don't worry, I simply couldn't interpret what you were trying to say. Zabzab, I thank you for your critique and warning. And no, I haven't published the first chapter before. I don't know anything about boring Mary sue, that part passed over my head. Also, I thought it was pretty clear that Naruto is five. Cezar A FG, sorry but I don't know what sigue means. Hope it is something positive though. Ogreman, your review was very heartwarming. It is nice to see people waiting to read my story. I will try to make this story as long as possible. Now, onwards to the story!**

**Also, sorry for the minor grammar mistakes.**

"Speaking"

'_Thinking'_

"**Kurama speaking face to face"**

'**Kurama speaking inside head'**

Naruto stood in front of the fireplace, eyes glued to the portrait, a storm of emotions raging inside of him. He didn't know what to feel; whether to be happy that he finally has found out who is parents are, _'Or were'_, he thought bitterly. Or whether to feel hurt that his jiji hid his parents' identity from him, or whether to feel furious at the treatment from the village.

His hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Kurama consoled him, **'It's okay to feel this way, Naruto. Anyone who would have been in your shoes would have felt the same.'**

Naruto finally sat down in Indian position, the energy leaving his legs. He tried to think _something_, but the thoughts evaded him, only the image of his parents situated in his minds. He was finally with his parents, yet at the same time, he was not.

Tears finally fell from his eyes from holding them back for so long. He cried for a long time, finally letting his emotions have an outlet. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was alone in the whole world.

Sniffling, he asked inside his head, _'Kurama, did you know about this?'_

Kurama remained silent for a few moments, which were enough for Naruto to deduce that he knew. Kurama _knew_, and he still didn't tell him. **'I did know, Naruto. After all, you shared the same space with me for nine months inside your mother'**, the fox replied softly.

Naruto cried even harder after hearing this. It was like a whole new storm colliding with storm that was already raging inside him. On one hand, he was happy that he and Kurama were together even before he came into this world. On the other hand, he felt betrayed that Kurama would hide something like this from him. He was too emotional to make sense of Kurama's statement right now. He felt _really alone._

After he finally stopped crying, he stood up too tired to explore the house right now. Hell, he was too tired to even form a coherent thought. Somehow, he climbed the stairs, opened the first door that was in front of him, and fell onto the bed, asleep before even hitting the soft mattress.

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen was panicking. He knew what the day was, and he had been wanting to get out of this office to spend time with his surrogate grandson. But fate seemed to have other plans for him as instead of having the normal amount, three stacks of paperwork in front of him, he was _literally buried_ in the paperwork.

He assigned two of his ANBU, parrot and ox, to keep an eye on Naruto. Sadly, he didn't know and was unaware that the two ANBU were firmly against the _demon-boy_. He didn't know that they were the ones who gave the mob directions to where Naruto was in the evening.

It was only when they came to report that he found out the truth. The two ANBU appeared in his office and knelt down in front of him.

"Report!" he ordered.

Parrot was the first one to speak, "We lost the de- boy, Hokage-sama. Because today is the Kyuubi festival, crowds were thick and that is where we lost i- him."

Unfortunately for the two, Hiruzen didn't believe them for a second. If not for the seriousness that the situation demanded he would have laughed out loud that a five year old was able to lose them in a crowd.

ANBU were specifically trained for such scenarios. Secondly, he caught both of the slips of tongue. _Demon _and _it_ were not so hard to deduce.

Hiruzen rarely felt anger. In fact, he rarely found the reason to get angry. Even Danzo could only get a small amount of irritation out of him. But right now, he was past irritated. No, he was _downright furious_.

All the ANBU in the room felt it. The ridiculous amount of killing intent that was coming from the Hokage. _'Shit'_, both the ANBU thought.

"CAT, BEAR!" he shouted. In an instant, the two ANBU were kneeling in front of the Hokage, just behind parrot and ox. "Orders, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen barked out, "Take these two to Ibiki! Tell him to hold nothing back and find out what they were doing this evening! Also, tell Inoichi that I want to know every face that was there in the mob! "

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" The two ANBU instantly caught the traitorous ANBUs and promptly flickered out.

Now that he was somewhat calm, the previous panic returned. Where was Naruto? Was he injured? Worse, was he dead? Was he even in the village?

He took out his ball that he used to keep tabs on the village occasionally. Mostly, he used it to ensure whether Naruto was alright or not.

He channeled his chakra through the ball, searching for Naruto. However, he was floored when nothing came up. He repeated his search two more times, just to be sure. The result remained the same. He did not like where this was going.

It was a strong possibility that Naruto was outside village walls.

"DOG, TIGER!" he called out. In an instant, the mentioned two were before him. "Track him down, no matter what! Even search outside the village if you have to!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" They flickered out. Hiruzen sat down with a heavy sigh. He was mentally exhausted from the paperwork he had been doing _all damn day _and then this.

'_Where are you, Naruto-kun?'_

He decided to sleep in his office and wait for them to come back and report, trusting his ANBU.

XXXXXXX

The sun's rays peeked from in between the curtains, falling straight onto Naruto's face. Blearily, he opened his eyes. Although he slept peacefully last night, he was mentally and emotionally exhausted. This type of exhaustion was new to him, having never experienced it before.

At first, he had no idea where he was, but then last night's memories came back to him.

He viciously fought back the tears that threatened to fall out again. _'NO! I will not cry again! I did enough of that last night!" _he reminded himself. It was time, he decided, to think through this logically.

First things first, morning rituals. He got up from the bed and headed to the bathroom. Surprisingly, it was very clean and dust free, compared to the rest of the house. _'Weird'_, he thought before closing the door.

Second, he needed to get out of here and meet his jiji. He had no desire to meet that man now, but the man had looked after him like his own. He was there for him when no one was. He was probably worried sick.

Although, he was _dying _to explore the house, it was best not to worry the old man even more. Besides, the faster he could get this over with, the quicker he could return here to explore. Besides, who knows, maybe his parents left something for him.

As soon as he closed the gate behind him, he was surprised to see the seals on the gate glow a bit before the gate locked itself. _'They were not malfunctioning! The seals recognized my chakra, which is why I was able to get in!'_, he thought in awe. He had read that the Yondaime was regarded as a seal master of the highest caliber, but seeing it with his own eyes was entirely different. Sensing his chakra signature when he hadn't even unlocked his chakra? His father was _awesome_!

That decided for him. If his father could do fuinjutsu like this, he will too! And he would be better than him!

He then turned to leave, when a thought struck him. He was about to dwell on it but he roughly shook himself out of it, _'I don't have time! I have to meet jiji!'_

With that, he ran out of the area, picking up speed when he realized he was quite far from the Hokage tower. En route, he mentally nudged his friend.

'_Hey, Kurama! You awake right now?'_, for a few seconds he heard nothing, then he heard a yawn in his head, almost making him do the same before he viciously squashed the urge.

'**What's up, Naruto?'**

Naruto faltered in his running, almost falling flat on his face. He couldn't help the grin that came on his face. Hearing Kurama, an ancient demon, using the slang that kids his age do was hilarious. A stray thought from last night's conversation with kurama

'_About last night, what did you mean when you said that we shared the same space for nine months inside my mother?'_, he asked curiously, turning serious once more.

Kurama replied, **'I meant what I said, Naruto. You are smart enough to figure out the answer to your question.'**

Naruto's expression turned grim at that. It meant he and his mother were exactly the same, host of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. But why was his mother…..?

'**Jinchuriki'**, Kurama interrupted his thoughts. Naruto blinked at that, _'What?'_ Kurama elaborated, **'Jinchuriki is the term that you are looking for. It means 'Power of the human sacrifice'. They are humans who have a tailed beast sealed inside them."**

Naruto did not falter even for a second after this revelation. He was almost halfway to the tower, which means he could learn a little more.

'_I get what you mean. What I don't understand is why my mother was a Jinchuriki before me? Also, what is my mother's name? Why was I made into one?'_, questions were coming one after the other like water from a running tap.

Kurama raised his eyebrows at the onslaught of questions, **'Whoa, whoa! Slow down, Naruto. You have to understand that I cannot answer all of your questions.'**

Naruto was a little peeved at that, _'Why not?'_

Kurama simply shrugged at that, acting as if he didn't even notice Naruto's anger, **'Because there is an old man who can answer these questions better than I can.'**

Naruto calmed down at that. Kurama was right; he had no hand in who he was sealed. Jiji was the Hokage, he was the one who probably knew more about these matters. Another thought struck him, but the tower was within his sight now. Better make this fast, he mused.

'_Hey Kurama! What was that you gave me last night as a gift?' _he asked.

He could _see _Kurama grin in his mindscape, **'I'm surprised you could pick up on that. The fact that you unintentionally used it is even more impressive.'**

Naruto scowled a little, _'Stop beating around the bush, Kurama! Just tell me!'_

Kurama however, did not budge, **'Don't tell me you can't figure it out, Naruto. You may not know, but I can **_**feel **_**how close you are to figuring it out.'**

Naruto was slowly getting irritated with the game of riddles that Kurama was deliberately dragging on. He was about to give him a mental scar to remember when he suddenly figured it out.

He had actually _felt _the mob approaching. _'Did you…..did you actually give me a sensory ability?'_

Kurama shrugged.

Naruto mentally whooped, _'Thank you so much, Kurama! Secondly'_, his tone turned menacing, causing Kurama to lift an eyebrow, _'This is for annoying me with riddles!'_ With that, he turned his _entire _mindscape _orange. _He would cherish Kurama's yell of horror forever.

He reached the Hokage tower, panting only lightly. Standing in front of the tower, he felt a little anxiety creeping up inside him. He faced the sky, _'What is the time, Kurama?'_

'**Observing the position of the sun, it should be around six in the morning'**, he deduced.

Naruto idly questioned himself, _'Would jiji be even awake at this hour?'_

He shook his head; he would not back down now. He steeled himself and entered the tower. Seeing almost no one in the corridors, he almost turned back, but resolutely thought to himself that he would wait for him.

He arrived in front of the Hokage's office; seeing the absence of the secretary he knew was supposed to be here, he sat on the bench outside the office. This was his first time in the Hokage tower, so he decided to look around. But there was not much to look around, _'All the important stuff must be someplace where only authorized people could access it'_, he assumed.

Sighing he closed his eyes, figuring he could talk to Kurama about his newly acquired sensory abilities.

'_Kurama, how could I sense the mob before when I haven't even unlocked my chakra?'_

Kurama thought about it a bit and then answered. He had nothing else to do anyway, **'Good observation, Naruto. It is simple; it was a newly awakened ability. Naturally, it would require time before it stabilizes. But before that happens, it is unstable for a little while. It was in that time period that you could sense the mob. If you were to try it now, you won't be able to use it"**, he explained, keeping it simple so Naruto could understand it.

After hearing Kurama's explanation, Naruto concluded that the ability Kurama had given was a chakra dependent ability. He could only use it as long as he infused chakra, that too, in a specific way so that he could sense.

'_Damn, that means I have to first unlock my chakra'_, he pouted.

Kurama again spoke up,** 'Before I forget, I did something else as well. Sensor ability was not the only thing I gave you.'**

Naruto rose an eyebrow in confusion. Now that he thought about it, not many kids his age could do that, _'What do you mean?'_

Kurama expanded on his statement, **'I tweaked your ability to sense danger as well.'**

Naruto nodded, _'I noticed that.'_

Kurama's grin became sly, **'Then did you also notice that when your danger sense activated, your surroundings seemed to slow down?'**

Naruto froze. Did that really happen? He thought back to the events of last night, specifically when he avoided the knives that were about to skewer him. He did remember seeing the knives coming in a sort of slow motion. Damn…..

He mentally whistled, _'Holy shit, you are right! I remember that! How is that possible anyway?! This ability would be so useful in the future!'_

Kurama shrugged, **'It was my way of saying thanks for what you did for me last night, Naruto.'**

Naruto deliberated on whether to try and unlock his chakra right now, or to wait to enter the academy and then unlock it. So deep he was in his thoughts, he did not notice the Hokage coming his way.

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen had a restless night. The aged Hokage's worry increased when Dog and Tiger came back after a search that lasted four hours. The reported that they searched every corner of the village, every possible place where Naruto might be, but found nothing. Hiruzen had dismissed them and headed back to his home, turning in for a sleepless and worrisome night.

When he got up in the morning, his first thought was about whether Naruto was alive or not. He immediately got up, shaking off the morning drowsiness like a seasoned veteran. He quickly got dressed and used the _body flicker _to get to the Hokage tower. He quickly climbed the stairs that led to his office, intent on resuming the search for Naruto as soon as possible.

He froze in his tracks, however, when he saw a familiar orange jumpsuit wearing kid, deep in his thoughts, which was not unusual for him.

"NARUTO!"

His exclamation was filled with relief and happiness. Naruto looked up, and Hiruzen knew something was wrong when instead of seeing the usual face-splitting grin, he was greeted with a small smile filled with…sadness?

Nevertheless, he grabbed the boy into a bear hug, which Naruto did not hesitate to reciprocate.

"Are you okay, Naruto-kun? Where were you last night?", the questions rushed out like water breaking from a dam. He felt tons lighter than he did last night.

Naruto gave him a small smile and said, "Somewhat jiji, and as for the second question, I need to talk to you in private."

Relieved but his confusion growing, he ushered the boy in his office. Naruto's keen eyes scanned the office, looking for places where shinobi might be hidden. The Hokage cannot be without bodyguards, after all.

'**The upper four corners of the room, that's where they are hidden'**, Kurama supplied helpfully. Naruto gave him a nod of thanks and then turned his attention to the aging Hokage.

"So, Naruto-kun, what did you want to talk about?"

Naruto debated whether to tell the old man to make his ANBU leave, but decided to kill two birds with one stone.

"I know who my parents are."

That simple statement changed the entire atmosphere of the office. Hiruzen tensed up and so did the ANBU in the office. To those who were intelligent, it was quite easy to deduce just whose son Naruto Uzumaki was. Fortunately or unfortunately, those were very few. However, Naruto's file itself was classified, with no one but only the Hokage had access to. To find out that Naruto knew about something that only the Hokage had the right to know was very unexpected.

Hiruzen wasted no time, waving hand seals. The ANBU recognized the order to leave them alone. They vanished and Hiruzen activated the privacy seals in the office.

He gave his complete attention to Naruto, "And who were they?"

Naruto was unnerved by the caution in the old man's eyes, but steeled himself and answered, "The Yondaime Hokage and his wife."

Hiruzen closed his eyes in acceptance and resignation. He always knew Naruto would find out, he just never expected it would be so soon. He opened them to find himself on the receiving end of Naruto's accusing stare, "Why did you pretend you didn't know, jiji?"

Hiruzen barely caught himself from flinching. He gave a sigh, "Who told you ?"

Naruto promptly answered back, "I figured it out myself."

"How?", the curiosity was killing him. He had to know if someone was out there wielding such dangerous information.

Naruto recounted the events of last night and at the end of his explanation, Hiruzen was both relieved and curious. Relieved because he was glad that no one besides Naruto and him knew his parents' identity, curious because he never knew that Minato had found a way to hide from his 'peeping' ball.

Both him and Naruto sat in silence for a while. Naruto was the one to break it first, hurt in his voice, "Jiji, why did you not tell me?"

Hiruzen responded, weariness coloring his tone, "Naruto, you have to understand that your father had many enemies. I could not afford to take the chance that you wouldn't blurt it out accidentally."

Anger finally filled Naruto, "Do you have any idea how desperate I was for answers?" He whispered, but the anger in his voice was as clear as the sky.

Guilt hit the Hokage with the force of Gai's fist. He could honestly not relate to Naruto's situation.

"Do you know", Naruto's voice was a bit louder this time, "How it broke me to not know the identity of my own parents?!" He was shouting at the end. "I have the right to that information more than any other person IN THE WORLD!"

Tears were freely flowing down Naruto's face by now. Hiruzen himself was shedding tears of his own. Naruto was right in that account. He had a right to know who the people were who brought him into this world. More so than anyone. But as the Hokage, his decision had to be logical. Sentiment could not be afforded by someone of his position.

Naruto had calmed down after a few minutes. "I have a question, jiji. And I want an honest answer." He was glaring at the Hokage by now.

Hiruzen wiped his own tears and answered, "I will do my best."

Naruto was looking at his feet, "Did they love me?"

Hiruzen smiled this time, nostalgically, "Naruto, you were their world even before you were born."

Naruto felt as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders. He had always wanted to know if his parents loved him. What child didn't?

"Did they leave something for me?"

That question caught Hiruzen off guard, however he was able to recover quickly, "Yes they did, but I don't know where."

Naruto lent back in his seat, eyes on the ceiling, thinking. If it was in this office, jiji would know, which means it is probably in his house.

'_Kurama, would you know by any chance?'_, he decided to ask the fox.

'…**damn, I was hoping to watch you scuttle around for answers. It is always entertaining'**, Kurama grumbled.

Naruto mentally raised an eyebrow, _'So you DO know.'_

'**Yes, in fact, it is the place where everyone would least suspect'**, answered the demon.

Naruto waited for more but it never came. He mentally huffed, _'Fine, I'll do it myself. And just for leaving me in the suspense'_, he changed his mindscape to orange, again. Kurama's howls were somehow louder than before.

'_In a place where everyone would least suspect. Hmmm…..where could that be? From what is written in the books, dad was a very humble man, but the size of the house implies he liked to live in comfort. Since he was a seal master, a study where he did his work would also be there. But he would place seals all over it to be safe. Everyone would expect him to keep the important stuff in his study, locked tight'_, he thought.

Like lightning, the answer came to him, causing his eyes to widen slightly,_ 'Seals can be broken if someone is skilled enough. But no one expects to find treasure buried right under their noses. Which means what isn't in the study, is right in front of me!'_ The image of his parents' portrait came into his mind.

He stood up from the chair with such force that it was knocked backwards. "I KNOW WHERE IT IS!"

Hiruzen jumped up at the shout, eyes wide, "K-know what, Naruto-kun?"

But Naruto was already running towards the window. Hiruzen hurriedly deactivated the privacy seals, just in time. Naruto opened the window, and jumped onto the slope of the Hokage tower. His speed easily carried him towards the edge of the slope. He executed a perfect cartwheel on the edge, his hands holding on and legs going over in an arc, onto the wall. He then released his hold, falling towards the ground. He rolled perfectly to soften his landing and then ran full throttle, back to the house of his parents.

Hiruzen had gone pale as soon as he saw Naruto cartwheeling over the edge and letting go. However, panic gave way to relief when he saw Naruto had landed perfectly and was running away.

'_That boy will send me to an early grave'_, he thought as he prepared to follow. He gave the order to stand by to his ANBU as he darted after Naruto.

He had to admit, for his age Naruto was unusually fast. He easily caught up to Naruto, who was easily ignoring the stares around him. Hiruzen asked the excited boy, "Naruto-kun, do you mind if I take us there quicker? I know where you are going."

Naruto glanced at him and said, "Then pick me up and do it!" Hiruzen nodded as he did just that and vanished in a _body flicker_. The villagers thought the Hokage was chasing the demon boy to kill him and when they saw him pick _it _up and vanish, they smiled. Everyone continued about their business, not suspecting a thing. **[Villagers of Konoha are idiots, anyway]**

XXXXXXX

Both the Hokage and Naruto, stood in front of his parents' portrait. Naruto spoke, without removing his eyes, "I forgot to ask in the excitement, jiji. What was my mother's name?"

Though he asked just that, Hiruzen thought it was better to tell him her story now rather than later. "Her name was Kushina Uzumaki. She was a woman who was fearless, blunt, brash and one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She was a deadly Kunoichi as well. It is her name that you carry, Naruto", his nostalgic.

Naruto was amazed that his mother was so lovely. Beautiful, as well as deadly; Naruto mentally applauded his father for landing such a catch and promised to do the same.

"She was from Uzushiogakure, The Land Hidden in Whirlpools. The Uzumaki's were distant relatives of the Senju clan, the clan of the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage. They were feared for their fuinjutsu skills; they were the undisputed masters of the art. It was your mother who taught your father fuinjutsu. They had immensely dense and large chakra reserves, which gave them a longer life than any other ninja. Some of them had special chakra, which they could physically manifest in the form of chains. Your mother was one of them.", he recalled, with Naruto soaking it all up like a little child hearing stories from his parents.

Hearing how powerful his mother's clan and by extension, his mother was in fuinjutsu, his resolve to master it only strengthened. He wanted to ask him why she was made the jinchuriki of Kurama, but let it go. He could always ask another day.

He turned his attention back to the portrait. He could not find any seals, but given his parents' skills in fuinjutsu, they could have made a seal that hid all other seals. "How do we go about this jiji?"

Hiruzen pinched his chin in thought. There was a high possibility that the portrait only required Naruto's blood to open. Letters from parents were only meant to be read by family, after all.

"You have to apply a bit of blood on the portrait, Naruto-kun. If something such as letters from your parents is there, Minato would trust no one but his blood to read them."

He took out a kunai and silently asked Naruto if he could slice his hand. Naruto gave him his hand without protest. Quickly and efficiently, Hiruzen sliced Naruto's thumb, opening up a small cut.

Naruto, knowing his fast healing would seal it within seconds, instantly wiped his thumb on the painting before it closed.

For a second, nothing happened. Naruto and Hiruzen thought that they might have been wrong, but then the whole frame of the painting lit up, showing intricate seals that only an Uzumaki or Minato would have hopes of understanding. There was a small click, and the portrait pushed out a little.

Naruto, more eager than he had ever been in his life, opened the portrait. Inside there was something very unexpected.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Author's note: Thank you everyone, for following my story! This is the first time I've got so many followers and favorites! And the reviews, OMG, so full of positivity! Please, Don't stop writing them! It warms my heart to read them! Now, as for the story, Temari won't be appearing until the chunin exams, so don't hold up your hopes for her coming early. I said before, that I will try to make this story as long as possible, but I will try my best to keep it interesting. Onto the story!**

Naruto and Hiruzen stared in bewilderment at what met their eyes. There were only two envelops that were there. Naruto was a bit disappointed that there were only two envelops remaining of his parents' legacy, but changed the direction of his thoughts immediately. He was taking something at face value, which he would never do. _'Perhaps it's the feelings I experienced last night. Emotions are clouding my judgement'_, he thought.

'**Don't worry about it, Naruto. Feelings and thoughts such as those never truly fade away. You just learn to live with them. Besides, it happens to the best of them'**, Kurama reassured.

Naruto noticed how Kurama excluded himself from the 'best of them' and rose an eyebrow mentally, _'It does not happen to you?'_

Kurama arrogantly puffed up his chest and declared, **'Of course not! I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune, boy! A being such as I am above such petty things!'**

Naruto ignored the pompous rambling of the fox and turned his attention back to the envelops. He quickly took them from their place and checked carefully if there was anything left. Seeing he had taken all there was, he closed the portrait. The seals glowed again, signifying the portrait had been locked back.

A sudden thought struck Hiruzen and he had to resist the urge to smack his forehead for what he was about to do. _'Why didn't I ask this earlier?! Damn the forgetfulness that comes with this age!'_

Hiruzen felt really bad but he had to do this right now. Tentatively, he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder, knocking the boy out of his trance. He was gazing at the envelops as if they were the most precious things in the world to him, which they were.

"Naruto-kun, why weren't you at your room in the orphanage yesterday in the evening?" he asked slowly, as if afraid to find out the answer to that question.

Naruto could not help the flinch that the question brought. When he had told jiji about how he found out his parents' identity last night, he had conveniently forgot to mention that he had been kicked out by the orphanage. He had hoped that jiji would not ask him about that.

In a mumble that Hiruzen barely understood the blonde said, "The matron kicked me out yesterday evening."

Hiruzen suspected that the matron would have deliberately kept Naruto out of the orphanage last night because of the festival, but did not expect him to be thrown out of the orphanage.

White hot anger flooded his veins that he barely restrained from letting it out as killer intent. _'How dare they?! How dare that woman do such a vile thing, throwing a five year old out, knowing he would be killed?! Why is the civilian population of this village so stupid? It's like they don't trust Minato's skills at all!'_ he raged inside his mind.

However, he knew he was equally at fault. He should have never announced Naruto's status as the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi at all. Naruto would have lived comfortably, without experiencing the hatred of the villagers.

Naruto watched his jiji's face carefully, for any signs of anger. Fortunately, years of being a shinobi and Hokage allowed Hiruzen to keep a neutral face, but Naruto could tell from the subconscious tightening of jiji's hand on his shoulder that he was angry.

"I see", was all he said before visibly collecting himself. Now to address the main issue. He looked at Naruto with a grave look on his face, "Naruto-kun, now that that is out of the way, we have to find a new place for you to live."

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, "Not another orphanage, jiji!" Hiruzen stared at the desperate look Naruto was giving him. To be honest, he was scared that one day it would come to this. And surprisingly, he agreed with Naruto. He did not want Naruto to live anywhere he would be hated. Unfortunately, that left only one option.

"Naruto-kun, that means you have to live alone", he said, silently wishing he could take the boy in himself. Unfortunately, he could not. The dratted civilian council was in his way.

Naruto crossed his hands over his chest defensively, not hesitating for a moment to answer, "Better than living in some place where I am treated with bias." He was looking at Hiruzen, chin tilted upwards in a way only children could to show their stubbornness. _'Oh Kushina, his stubbornness reminds me so much of you'_, he recalled with a sad smile. He knew Naruto would not budge from his point.

Sighing, he said, "But are you sure you will be able to take care of yourself? You will have to cook for yourself, bring food for yourself, clean your clothes, keep your home clean, which is very hard considering the size of this house", he explained wisely.

However, all that wisdom was thrown out of the window when he noticed the look Naruto was giving him. His face was set in a deadpan stare, an eyebrow raised. He found himself feeling quite stupid when Naruto kept looking at him like that, the deadpan never leaving. He was reminded of another blonde who used to make many people feel stupid with the same look on his face.

Naruto spoke seriously, as if he had not noticed how uncomfortable the man was at all, "Jiji, when you consider the size of this house, it is clear that no single person could take care of a place such as this by himself. I never said I want to live here; a small apartment would do. Besides", his expression turned a bit sad, "This house is so big that the loneliness will start to bother me, considering whose house was this in the first place."

Hiruzen was surprised at the maturity that Naruto was showing_. 'People thrice his age aren't this mature'_, he thought with amazement. No matter how many times he saw Naruto, he was always stunned at how mature Naruto was for his age.

Considering his options, he said, "Give me one hour, Naruto-kun. I'm positive I can find an apartment big enough just for you. Until then, I assume you would want to read the contents of those letters?" he said giving him a significant glance, complete with chin down and eyebrow raised.

Naruto suddenly seemed to remember about the envelops. His hands shot to his lower's pocket where he had put them somewhere between his talk with jiji. He looked up and replied, "Yes, that will do, jiji."

He left after that, muttering things about a matron and execution.

After jiji left, Naruto reached for the first letter that came into his hand. He read the kanji on the envelope with wide eyes. _**'Mother'**_, it said. Hands shaking because of nerves, he opened the letter.

Naruto was a pretty fast reader. Not because he was eager to finish the books early; more like he was forced become a fast reader. The matron at the orphanage would give him books, but would take them away very quickly. Which is why he forced himself to become a fast reader. But this letter was read very slowly, wanting to taste each word of his mother.

_Dear Naruto,_

_Oh, my sweet little child, how I wish that I were alive to see you grow into a fine young man like your father. I'm writing this letter in case something happens to us and you are left alone. If you are reading this, it means that we are dead. We are so sorry for leaving you, baby._

_First things first, I love you with all my heart, Naruto. A mother never stops loving her child, even in death. Know that I am still watching over you, and another thing; don't you dare visit me unless you are a hundred and ten years old! I want you live a full and happy life and only die of old age._

_Second, if you decide to become a shinobi, remember the three vices of shinobi life. First is alcohol, be responsible about it and don't become a drunk. Second is money, use it responsibly and try not to waste it. If you DO want to waste it, better do it on your wife. The third is women, and as your mother, I absolutely forbid you to become a pervert and a womanizer. Respect women and also, find a woman you love and want to spend your life with. Don't settle for anything less!_

_At the bottom of this letter, you will see two kanji. The first one contains my sword, if you ever decide to take up kenjutsu. The second contains the ring with which your father proposed me with; give it to the girl you believe will love you for the rest of your life._

_Once again, your father and I love you, no matter what. Remember that Naruto._

_With love,_

_Kushina Uzumaki_

_P.S: Learn fuinjutsu. The Uzumaki's were known for it and your father mastered it as well. I have left ten volumes of fuinjutsu that I got from the Uzumaki archives, everything you need to become a master. Best of luck, baby!_

Naruto was numb after reading the letter from his mother. He could not find the words to express how fulfilling and satisfying and amazing it was to hear words from his mother, even if it was on a letter. He saw the kanji that his mother mentioned and smiled his face-splitting grin at that. His mother was awesome!

He was so hyped up from reading his mother's letter that he almost forgot about his father's. He put the letter down gently as if it were made of glass and picked his father's letter up.

_Dear Naruto,_

_If you are reading this letter, then it means that I'm no longer among the living. I desperately hope that your mother is with you, but if that is not the case, allow me to explain a few things to you._

_My name is Minato Namikaze, and as you probably have guessed, the Yondaime Hokage. If you already know this, then you are probably in the academy. If not, it is good to read. Keep it up! If you did not know about my identity as your father before this letter, please don't be upset at Sandaime-sama. I left him specific instructions that you were to be told about my identity only if you were a chunin, or married. I made many enemies during the Third Great Shinobi War, especially from Iwa. _

_If people were to know about it, you would be a prime target for all my enemies._

_I just want you to know that even If you are yet to be born, I love you with all my heart. It was the happiest day of my life when your mother announced that she was pregnant with you._

_Since I was an orphan, I really don't have any special jutsu to give you. But what I have left, I hope you master them. The improved notes I made from scratch in my quest to learn and master Nidaime-sama's Hiraishin no jutsu are in the first kanji at the bottom of this letter. Also, I leave the Rasengan to you, in hopes that you can complete it, something that I never could. It is in the second kanji._

_Your mother was Kushina Uzumaki and she was the loveliest and one of the most compassionate women I've ever met in my life. She is perhaps the only one who loves you more than I do._

_I have left you another surprise in the basement of this house. Something of my own design and perhaps my greatest fuinjutsu achievement yet, other than mastering the Eight trigrams sealing style. Details are in the basement. Enjoy!_

_With all the love in the world,_

_Dad_

Naruto did not know when he had started crying, but he did not care. He could feel his parents' love from the letter; he could almost see them smiling down on him from above. He wiped his tears off, a determined glint in his eyes. He would do his parents proud!

He looked up and noticed that only a little over five minutes had passed. _'Good, a lot of time to explore!' _He nudged his partner mentally, _'Hey, Kurama, you awake? We can finally explore the house!'_

All he heard was a deep snore reverberating in his mindscape that caused Naruto to sweatdrop. How the hell was Kurama asleep?! He was awake just ten minutes ago! It's impossible to fall asleep that quickly when all you do is laze around and not even get tired. He decided to leave the snoring fox alone and explore by himself.

He found out that the room he slept the previous night in was his parents' room. Surprisingly, he found out that it was a little easier to not cry now. He found out that there were four bedrooms in total; his parents' and his on the first floor, the guest bedrooms on second floor. One good thing about his and his parents' bedrooms was that they had balconies attached to them.

He got out of the house and was stupefied at the space at the back of the house. It was almost one-fourth the size of a training ground, and Konoha's training grounds are very large. He then finally decided to explore the basement, curious about the gift his father had left for him.

Climbing down the stairs, he saw the basement and whistled lowly, impressed with his father even more. He connected the dots and had to chuckle at how clever his father was.

The basement was almost the size of their backyard, if only a bit smaller. But what was interesting that there was a glass screen separating a large part of the basement from him. Just below the screen, there was a panel with seven kanjis, each representing the number one to seven. He was a bit confused at that and further when he saw a large seal array on the ceiling of the basement on the other side of the glass.

He turned around, hoping to find something that would explain what the hell he was looking at. He spotted a notebook labeled **'Training manual' **and picked it up. He opened it and found another note from his father.

_Dear Naruto,_

_This is a training manual for what you are currently looking at. My greatest achievement till date._

_This is a training room I have designed to improve my Taijutsu. While not weak at it, I was not exactly strong either. I designed it and incorporated several Taijutsu styles into this room, courtesy of Gai and Kakashi. If you ever meet Gai, just be a little cautious. He's always a bit too much._

_You must have noticed the seven kanjis on the panel. They are the seven levels of training, each more difficult than the rest. I must advise you not to immediately go in there, even if you have learnt a Taijutsu style already. I have designed this training room in synchronization to resistance seals. You must only start if you have mastered the sixth level of resistance seals. If you are able to move comfortably at that level, you may begin from the first level. As you move onto a higher resistance, you can move onto the next level. For example, if you have mastered the seventh level of resistance, you can safely try the second level of the training room._

_I have left a scroll of the Taijutsu style I created for myself. If you want, you can learn it. It's up to you. OR, you can create a style for yourself._

_Remember, whatever fighting style you learn. It should have the symbolization of the five main elements of nature. It should be as aggressive as fire, as sharp as the wind, as fast as lightning, as strong as the earth and as fluid as water._

_Good luck!_

_Dad_

Naruto was amazed at the end of the letter. His dad created a whole training room with simulations with Fuinjutsu! From what he read until now, Fuinjutsu was perhaps the most versatile art among all ninja arts. Anything is possible with Fuinjutsu! He started making plans on how he was going to proceed when his keen ears picked up a voice calling his name.

'_Jiji must be back'_, he thoughtas he raced back upwards, closing the door of the basement behind him. He took the letters with him, stuffing them in his pocket and walked to the gate, opening it to talk to jiji.

"Ah, Naruto-kun", he greeted, "I trust that you have explored the house?"

Naruto nodded, smiling, "It is great."

Hiruzen chuckled, "Good. Now, as you said, I have found an apartment for you."

Naruto gave the smallest of nods, "So, can I go there and see it?"

Hiruzen nodded, "I'll take you there myself." Gripping Naruto's shoulder firmly, he vanished in a _shunshin_.

Appearing in front of a building, Hiruzen guided Naruto in. "I've already stocked it with what you might need", he explained as they arrived on the top floor.

Stopping in front of a door, Hiruzen pushed the door open and let himself and Naruto in.

The first thought that Naruto had upon seeing his apartment was that it was small, just big enough for him. The second was that it was perfect. The third was awe, seeing that it was stocked with a bed, a dining table, a kitchen with a stove and a refrigerator, and a bedroom with a bathroom and an attached balcony. The bedroom even had two racks for clothes and other belongings.

Hiruzen gave a small smile seeing how Naruto was awed like any other child whenever something new was given to them.

"You can stay here until you get married. After that, you can move into your parents' home", he said.

He waited on the sofa for Naruto to finish exploring the apartment, which was not long enough. He stood up when Naruto walked into the living room, "So, how is it?"

He was totally unprepared for Naruto to come bowling over to him, wrapping his arms around him in a hug that sent all the air out of his lungs. Only bracing himself at the last second caused him to prevent falling over backwards. Instead, he wrapped his arms around the boy in a bear hug.

Naruto separated first, unshed tears in his eyes, "It's perfect, jiji. Thank you so much!"

Hiruzen smiled, relieved that Naruto liked it. "Now, before I leave, here is your monthly stipend", he said, handing over a wad of notes, "This is 12,000 yen. Spend it wisely. Is there anything else you need before I go?"

Naruto thought for a minute and said, his face the epitome of seriousness, "A cooking book would be nice."

XXXXXXX

Roaming the streets in the evening, Naruto thought back to the afternoon's conversation. The old man had almost face faulted at Naruto's request. When asked why he would want a cooking book, Naruto responded with his signature 'Making-you-feel-stupid-with-just-a-look' look.

He made the Hokage sweat for a minute before answering that he wanted to learn cooking because he did not want to waste his money eating outside, where he would be outrageously overpriced.

That brought him to his main problem. Although jiji had stocked his fridge with all the healthy food, it would eventually be finished and he would have to buy more. Which meant he would be overpriced for every item he bought. He sighed, shaking his head at the villagers' stupidity.

Really! Just because Kurama lived inside him did not mean that he was Kurama, just like when you put sweets in a box and close it, the box does not become the sweet itself. And quite frankly, Kurama felt insulted because Naruto was called a demon instead of him. **'I am the only demon here, dammit!'** he always said.

That, in turn, reminded him of another matter. He spoke inside, _'Hey Kurama! I need your help!'_ It was almost a minute before the bijuu responded, **'With what, brat?'**

Naruto honestly did not mind Kurama calling him a brat. He would prefer it over _demon-boy _any day. Also, it warmed his heart every time he heard it because the fondness in the voice was as clear as daylight.

'_I need your help in unlocking my chakra'_, he replied. Kurama, now fully awake from his nap, raised an eyebrow,** 'Why now? You could unlock it when you enter the academy like everyone else.'**

Resolutely shaking his head, Naruto replied,_ 'No! When I enter the academy, I want to be ahead of everyone else, not with everyone! And if I have to start my training to become a shinobi, with all the materials from dad and mom, I will start now!'_

Kurama released a sigh. He hated it sometimes when Naruto acted like his mother. Kushina was infuriating, the tomato brat that she was.

'**Okay, head to one of the training fields'**, he instructed. Naruto nodded before changing directions towards the training fields. He entered the first one he saw and after ensuring that no one was around, he sat down in Indian position, entering a meditative trance and waiting for a pull into his mindscape from Kurama. He did not have to wait for long, but a did not see a certain purple haired kunoichi looking at him curiously from the entrance of the training ground.

XXXXXXX

Anko Mitarashi was a tokubetsu jonin of Konoha, specializing in interrogation and working directly under Ibiki Morino, the famed interrogator of Konoha. She was powerful, after all, being a former apprentice of one of the Densetsu no Sannin, Orochimaru.

Just because she was Orochimaru's apprentice meant she was given the kind of treatment that should honestly be reserved for the likes of Orochimaru. She was called the _'Snake Bitch' _by the populace of Konoha, but she took it head on and made a fearful reputation for herself, ensuring the villagers kept their distance.

She also knew that one another suffered the same treatment at the hands of the villagers. But she was not that stupid to believe that the blonde would be Kyuubi in human form. He intrigued her, the way he endured the hatred of the villagers and never backed down. For a five year old, that was seriously impressive.

So when she saw the blonde going towards the training fields, her interest in him was peaked. She decided to follow him, to see what he was going to do. She saw how he observed his surroundings and decided to humor him, by simply being hidden at the entrance, out of sight for him, but visible to anyone else. _'What the hell is this boy doing?' _she thought with a raised eyebrow.

XXXXXXX

Naruto arrived in his mindscape and saw Kurama resting at the shore of a very large water body, one he knew was not there before. _'Where the hell did that come from?' _he thought as he approached Kurama.

Kurama sensed his approach and opened his eyes, looking at Naruto with an intense look, **"Naruto, do you know what this is?"** he asked, gesturing to the water body.

Naruto shook his head.

Seeing that, Kurama explained, **"This water body is the representation of your chakra. But before we begin to unlock your chakra, I discovered a very interesting thing about your body"**, smiling at the end.

Naruto tilted his head to the side, _"What?"_

Kurama was as blunt as a hammer, **"You don't have chakra coils in your body, kid."**

Naruto's reaction was priceless, _"WHAAAAT?!"_

Kurama chuckled. Naruto's reaction to surprises was turning out to be very amusing.

XXXXXXX

**Sorry guys, couldn't resist that cliffhanger. However, I can assure you that Naruto will become a shinobi who can mold chakra. Updates will be once a week from now on. Stay tuned for the next chapter! **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Author's note: Hey guys! First order of business, I would like to apologize for the cliffhanger. I feel quite bad about it. My original plan for the chapter would have extended it to above 5k words, but I really couldn't resist finishing it right there. So I hope you forgive me. Second order of business, the updates will be from Sunday to Sunday, exceptions will be days like yesterday where I can't resist a good cliffhanger. Also, those who are confused about the time frame, it's only been a day since Naruto met Kurama. With that out of the way, onto the story!**

**P.S: This chapter will be a bit longer as the next one will be a time skip. Enjoy!**

**P.P.S: This chapter will have a mini time skip!**

Kurama was as blunt as a hammer, **"You don't have chakra coils in your body, kid."**

Naruto's reaction was priceless, _"WHAAAAT?!"_

Kurama chuckled. Naruto's reaction to surprises was turning out to be very amusing. He watched as Naruto seemed to have a panic attack within his own mind. The mind responded to his mental state, shaking violently. Kurama understood just how much that had rattled Naruto.

"**Calm down Naruto! I wasn't finished!" **he shouted. Seeing how Naruto was showing no signs of calming down, Kurama let loose a small bit of his killing intent, enough to make a jonin sweat.

Naruto, however, was totally inexperienced in experiencing killing intents, therefore his reaction was entirely predictable to Kurama. Naruto instantly froze in his place, all thoughts of Kurama's news fleeing his mind as he registered the new feeling. The mindscape stopped shaking as Naruto slowly turned towards Kurama.

Voice shaking, he asked Kurama, _"W-what was t-that?"_

Kurama stared Naruto in the eye, indicating he was serious, **"That was killing intent. Usually used by shinobis to intimidate each other. Whoever has the higher killing intent is able to make the other suffer illusions of death, if the killing intent is potent enough. I'm surprised though, that you managed to stay conscious"**, he said with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto was taking deep breaths during Kurama's explanation, trying to calm down. By the end of the explanation, he was almost back to his normal self.

Scowling a bit, he asked, _"And you thought that was the best way to calm someone who is having a panic attack?!"_

Shrugging a bit, Kurama defended himself, **"You have to start someday. Also, that was only a little of my killing intent. You have yet to experience my full killing intent"**, he finished, grinning maliciously in the end.

Naruto, for his credit, showed no reaction and kept his face neutral. He would deal with this some other day. For now, he had to focus on his chakra problem.

Clearing his throat, he asked, _"What were you saying about my chakra coils before?"_

Kurama sat up, towering over Naruto, who had to look up towards him, **"As I said, there are no chakra coils in your** **body. But that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. At least, not yet. You have to first unlock your chakra so I can see if this is a problem or not."**

Naruto nodded, now fully in control of his emotions. He then gestured towards the lake, _"What is that? I don't remember seeing it yesterday when I changed my mindscape."_

Kurama nodded at him, **"You would be right. However, do you remember your question to me concerning trauma and your mindscape?"**

Naruto tilted his head, his eyes agreeing to Kurama's question.

Kurama said, **"Well, that theory applies to this lake as well. You may change your mindscape to anything, but there will always be a representation of what is already there, within your mind and body."**

Gesturing to the lake, he explained, **"There are two things of importance that you need to know about this lake. Obviously, this represents your chakra, but there are some other things as well.**

"**The size of this lake represents the size of your reserves. I have minor difficulty in seeing the end of this lake, which means your reserves are impressively large for your age. The depth of this lake represents the density of your chakra. The deeper it is, the denser and more powerful your chakra is."**

Naruto was listening intently to Kurama. He had to admit, he couldn't see the other side of the lake, which meant that his reserves would have to be very large. The question that now remained was how deep the lake was.

As if reading his mind **[See what I did there?] **Kurama nodded knowingly, **"You have to dive inside the lake to find out how deep it is. Before you do that, touch the water and tell me what you feel."**

Naruto frowned in confusion at the odd request, but nodded. He touched the water and instantly his frown deepened, as if he didn't like the feeling.

Kurama turned his head towards him, asking, **"What do you feel, Naruto?"**

Naruto removed his hand from the lake, saying, "Like it's incomplete. Something else should be there but it's not."

Kurama nodded his head in agreement, **"Okay, that missing thing is your chakra. Once you unlock your chakra, that feeling will be gone. Now, get into the lake and unlock it!" **he almost ordered Naruto.

Naruto thought for a moment about how to proceed with this. Deciding it, he jumped inside taking a deep breath.

He swam his hands forward in a sharp motion, pulling them back to go deeper. He kept swimming for what felt like eternity. _'How deep is this lake? How dense is my chakra?!' _thoughts like these kept running through his head as he continued to go deeper. Strangely, he felt no need to breathe in this lake. _'Must be because I'm swimming in my own mind'_, he deduced. Finally, he saw what appeared to be the bottom. His efforts to reach there hastened.

As soon as his hands touched the floor of the lake, he instinctively knew that his chakra was just beneath his him. The floor of the lake was acting as a barrier between him and his chakra. He just needed a way to break the barrier so he could access his chakra.

He decided to dump logic for this situation and force his way like a brute. An idea that would probably not work, but worth trying. Considering that this was his body and mind, the barrier would be only strong enough so he could break it with enough effort.

He pulled his hand back, and punched it ground as hard as he could. He repeated this for nineteen times. On the twentieth time, a small crack appeared on the floor. Naruto noticed the crack and grinned in satisfaction. _'About time you cracked'_, he thought. Redoubling his efforts, he saw that with every punch, the crack widened. At last, the crack was big enough that he knew it would break in one last punch.

Pulling back his fist, he brought it back down with all the force he could muster. As soon as his fist connected, the ground shattered from beneath him and he was assaulted by absolute euphoria. He felt complete now, the earlier feeling of something missing now completely gone.

But the force with which the chakra was released was so great that he was forced out of the lake in just a few moments, contrary to the time he took to reaching the bottom. The last thing he heard from Kurama before being forced out of his awake was, **"Damn, I haven't felt chakra this dense and powerful since the tree hugger himself. But the midnight blue is unusual…"**

XXXXXXX

Anko was watching the blonde for almost twenty minutes now. _'Just what is he hoping to accomplish?'_ she thought. She was getting impatient now.

Just as she was about to turn and leave, she felt it. It was impossible to ignore, given how powerful the presence was. She wheeled around, eyes wide, staring at Naruto. _'He couldn't possibly be….'_

Naruto's eyes opened a second before midnight blue chakra exploded from him. It was so dense and powerful that the ground around him cracked violently. Wind was blowing all around very fast by the sheer force of his chakra.

Naruto lifted his hands in front of him, seeing the beautiful midnight blue color of his chakra flowing from his body. It almost seemed to be _sparkling_. The feeling was so exhilarating that he almost missed Kurama's voice, **'NARUTO! YOU ARE LETTING OUT TOO MUCH CHAKRA! STOP RIGHT NOW!'**

Naruto, fortunately, noticed the urgency in Kurama's voice and immediately thought about reigning it in. To his surprise, the chakra stopped exploding from him almost instantly. Unfortunately, he had already expelled too much of it. The sudden coming down from a high like that caused him to fall unconscious on his back.

Anko, who had watched the whole spectacle, was looking at Naruto with eyes wide as dinner plates. _'Was that Kyuubi's chakra that exploded from him? No, the Kyuubi's chakra is orange. The chakra that exploded from him was blue. An unusual, darker shade, but blue nonetheless, which means that the chakra was his!' _she thought incredulously.

Her one hand was now on her mouth, _'The amount that he was letting out can easily rival the Sandaime's! But how did he unlock it, and that too so early?'_

All kinds of questions were flashing through her mind, but seeing the kid fall unconscious on his back, she rushed to him, checking to see of he was alright. A sigh of relief escaped her when she saw that he had just collapsed from mild chakra exhaustion.

'_He must be only five to six years old. Unlocking chakra at such a young age is unheard of! Most children unlock it after spending a year at the academy and this kid does it __**before**__even entering the academy?!'_ she thought incredulously.

It suddenly occurred to her that a blast of chakra like that would have attracted attention of almost all the shinobi in the village. Shinobi training kicking in, she picked the kid up and vanished in a _shunshin_ to the Hokage's office.

XXXXXXX

The Hokage sat in his chair, eyes glaring at the giant pile of paperwork that seems to materialize out of _nowhere _and just as he finishes the previous file.

He was ridiculously irritated at how it so _innocently_ sat in front of him. _'This is ridiculous! This blasted paperwork __**has **__to be a force of nature! There is no end to it, at all! It is always mocking me!'_

To anyone else watching it, including the ANBU guards in the room, it seemed hilarious how the Hokage was locked in a glaring contest with _paperwork _of all things. But the captain of the ANBU group could relate to his boss, having to deal with something similar after every mission they do.

Hiruzen finally lost his patience after staring at it for almost fifteen minutes. So infuriated was the old kage that he positioned his hands into a Tiger seal and took a deep breath, intent on burning the paperwork away.

He was one second from setting the paperwork on fire when he sensed it. The powerful burst of chakra; so powerful that he was sure almost every shinobi in the village felt it, sensor or not.

'_What was that? I didn't know any shinobi of mine was capable of releasing chakra at his scale. From what I sensed, it was powerful, overwhelmingly so, but there was no intention in that burst of chakra. No evil or good, it simply was neutral. Just what is going on?'_ he thought.

He decided that any shinobi who might be near the burst of chakra would respond and report to him shortly. With that, he turned his attention back onto the table and put his hands on it, closing his eyes. Five minutes later, his door was knocked. He answered, "Come in."

The door opened to show his secretary, Ikumi, a middle aged woman, gesturing towards a purple haired kunoichi carrying a familiar child with blonde hair in her arms.

"_Naruto, what happened to you now?"_ he thought in worry as he quickly gestured her inside. Anko gently laid Naruto on the couch in the office and then turned to face the Hokage.

His eyes were hardened, having the look of a true, legendary shinobi instead of the man who was reduced to doing paperwork. His voice had an edge of steel, "What happened, Anko?"

Anko was not nervous at all, as she had done no wrong, "Hokage-sama, I was just passing by the training fields when I saw Naruto Uzumaki sitting in the middle of a training field in a meditating position. I was curious, so I hid from his sight and observed for anything that would happen. Twenty minutes passed and I was about to leave when I saw the most extraordinary thing Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. A burst of powerful chakra and Anko comes to him with an unconscious Naruto? There seemed to be a link here. "What did you witness, Anko?"

"A burst of chakra so powerful that I haven't felt anything like it before, Hokage-sama. The ground around him seemed to crack just by the force of his chakra!"

Hiruzen's eyebrows went upwards in a disbelieving motion, "You mean to say that Naruto here", he gestured to the boy on the couch, "Unlocked his chakra and the burst of chakra from before was _his _chakra?!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Anko nodded in agreement. Hiruzen sat back in his chair, finding it quite hard to believe what Anko had told him. However, Anko had no reason to lie to him. Still, how was this possible?

"Anko", he said to the kunoichi, "Stay here right now until he wakes up. I believe we should hear this right from the source", he said, looking at Naruto.

XXXXXXX

Naruto was lying on his back in his mindscape, staring at the sky. Kurama was right beside him, head rested on his hands, looking content. Naruto sat up, eyes blinking around in confusion, _"What happened?"_

Kurama replied in a bored tone, **"You fell unconscious. It's as simple as that."**

Naruto eyes widened in realization, _"I unlocked my chakra! So what does that mean for my body, Kurama?" _he asked, eager to address the problem of his absence of chakra coils.

Kurama glanced at him, **"I observed the release of your chakra. And I have good news. You can still control your chakra."**

Naruto seemed to practically melt in relief at that, _"That is good."_

"**I wasn't finished"**, Kurama's voice brought him back again, **"Your absence of chakra coils actually makes it easier for you to control your chakra. You can directly control it, without having to rely on chakra coils. Which means, you will actually have excellent chakra control."**

Hearing this, Naruto started jumping around in joy. He would be able to become a shinobi after all! Moreover, his chakra control would be excellent! Kurama was quick to burst his bubble, however.

Continuing in the same lazy tone as before, Kurama said, **"You were lucky, however. Most people would not be so fortunate as to controlling chakra without chakra coils."**

Naruto stopped dancing around and turned to Kurama with wide eyes, _"Then why am I different?"_

At this Kurama shrugged and didn't bother to answer, saying only one thing before falling back asleep, **"Start training to use it."**

With Kurama now asleep, Naruto had nothing to do in his mindscape. _'Might as well wake up'_, he thought. He walked up to a stream and promptly fell face first into it.

XXXXXXX

It had been over ten minutes since they were waiting for Naruto to wake up. Anko honestly did not know why the Hokage had asked her to wait in his office. But she had to follow whatever the Hokage said, so she waited, albeit impatiently.

Hiruzen on the other hand was contemplating on what to do. He was in his classic thinking pose, elbows on his desk, chin rested on his hands and eyes closed. If what Anko had said was really true and Naruto had really unlocked his chakra, then perhaps it was time to begin Naruto's training. He had thought that Naruto would grow up normally in the academy, but it seemed nothing was normal if it was connected to Naruto. Maybe he could get Anko to train him…

Suddenly he heard a groan from where Naruto was laid. His and Anko's eyes snapped to there as Naruto sat up, looking no worse for wear. His eyes seemed confused as he did not seem to recognize where he was. However as soon as he saw him and Anko, the weariness clouding his eyes suddenly disappeared, replaced by cautiousness.

"How the hell did I get here?" he mumbled as he studied the purple haired kunoichi. He had never seen her before.

The kunoichi spoke in a rude tone, "I brought you here after you successfully alerted the entire shinobi force of this village. What the hell were you even doing in the training field, brat?!"

Naruto suddenly remembered that he had unlocked his chakra successfully and did not stop the full blown grin on his face. "Unlocking my chakra", he replied in a cool tone.

"But how did you know to unlock your chakra, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked curiously. A five year old child unlocking their chakra, without any outside help was simply unheard of. Not to mention how powerful the chakra was.

Naruto did not think that he would be dragged into the Hokage's office to explain how he unlocked his chakra. He needed time to build up a lie about this. Unfortunately, he didn't have it as both of them were looking at him expectantly. So he just gave them his patented 'Making-you-feel-stupid-with-a-simple-look" look.

Both of them sweat dropped, thinking along the lines of _'How does he do that so well?!'_

Fortunately for Naruto, it allowed him time to come up with a convincing lie, "Well, chakra is inside everyone right? I thought if I looked deep inside myself, I would find it too. For the you-know-what, right jiji?"

Hiruzen looked confused for a moment, but realized it. Naruto wanted to unlock his chakra to get access to his parents' things left behind for him. But now, time to address the elephant in the room.

"Now that you have unlocked your chakra Naruto-kun, what will you do?"

Naruto frowned for a moment and crossed his hands, causing Anko to hold back her urge to hug him and yell _**'Kawai!' **_The kid looked mighty adorable!

Naruto said, "I will train…..or so I would like to say. Unfortunately, I have no idea as to how I should proceed now. Books have always been the answer to all my problems, but I feel that books can't teach me what I need to know practically", he revealed honestly.

'_Perfect'_, Hiruzen thought with a hidden smile. Normally he would have Naruto wait for another year, letting him join the academy and then letting him learn all he needed. But he knew that Naruto was a naturally curious child. Who knows what experiments he would do to find out what he could do. It would be dangerous to leave Naruto to his own devices, or chakra.

His eyes shifted to Anko, who was watching Naruto and barely restraining herself from glomping him. _'But if he were to get an instructor to teach him early, many consequences could be avoided. Also, since Naruto is a genius, he may not really fit in with his age group, not only because he would be far ahead of them, but also because even his generation keeps their distance from him. I also have this feeling that Naruto and Anko will bond spectacularly.'_

He barely kept himself from grinning. _'Naruto can still enter the academy at the proper age and graduate with his age group class. Many of the teachers may not give him proper education because of their grudges against Kyuubi, but that treatment would be null and void if he is already so far ahead. The council will surely protest against this, calling this favoritism, but I can justify myself by saying that the village's jinchuriki must be trained early so he could be ready for anything. The foolish council members will blindly agree to this and if they don't, who are they to go against the Hokage? Oh, the pieces of Naruto's puzzle are falling together wonderfully!' _he thought to himself gleefully.

Outward he said, "Then it is probably safer to get you an instructor rather than you experimenting on your own."

Anko finally caught on to the Hokage's plan as she wheeled around to face him with wide eyes, "Hokage-sama! You can't possibly-"

"I appoint Anko Mitarashi as instructor of Naruto Uzumaki, effective immediately", he declared.

Naruto's eyes, along with Kurama's, were wide as dinner plates. This was totally unexpected. Naruto never expected to get a personal instructor. He, the village pariah, jailor of Kyuubi! But he was happy, and that was all that mattered to him. For Kurama, he found it hard to believe that the old monkey had balls big enough to pull this kind of stunt in his age.

Anko protested, "B-but Hokage-sama-" "Do you have a problem with my decision, Anko?" he asked with his voice hard.

Anko immediately stood in attention, "No Hokage-sama!"

Hiruzen immediately smiled, reverting back to his grandfather persona, "Good. I knew you would have no problem!"

Anko sweat dropped at how fast the old man changed personalities. She actually thought that he was showing favoritism, because everyone knew how close he was to Naruto. But she also saw how special Naruto was. But she was not cut out to be an instructor, rather she didn't want to. She was more suited out in the field.

Turning to Naruto, he said, "Naruto, you can go back to your apartment. Anko and I have something to discuss. Also, report to the training field behind this tower, tomorrow morning, at six a.m. sharp."

Naruto nodded and immediately left through the window. Turning his attention back to the special jonin, he said, "Anko, you have to understand that this is necessary. Naruto will face many difficulties in the future, and I fear that by the time everyone acknowledges him and comes to support him, it will be too late. Also, give him a chance. He will surprise you", he said with utmost seriousness.

Anko was hesitant but nodded. Truthfully, she did not want to do this but had to anyway. The fact Hokage told the brat and her to report to the Hokage training fields was a surprise since they were exclusively reserved for the Hokage.

She headed back to her apartment, thinking about how she should go about this.

XXXXXXX

Naruto sat eating his dinner on his dining table. The cooking book the Hokage had provided was invaluable, allowing him to cook food for himself. He made sure to follow the instructions in the book word for word, and the results were wroth eating. I might have some natural aptitude for cooking, otherwise I would have already blown the kitchen up, he mused.

He was eternally grateful for what the old man had done for him. Now that he thought about it, he figured that when he entered the academy two years later, some instructors would be prone to discriminate with him. Perhaps this was the way of old man looking out for him in his shinobi life, he thought.

He finished the dinner and washed the plates. After that he proceeded to his bedroom and laid down on his bed, closing his eyes. Tomorrow will be interesting indeed.

Naruto's eyes opened as soon as the alarm he had set rang. His hand reached out and shut the alarm clock. Waking up at five-thirty in the morning left him plenty of time to get ready.

He finished his morning rituals in ten minutes and dressed in his normal, orange jumpsuit. He went to the fridge and pulled out two bananas, peeling one and eating it at comfortable pace, followed by the second. He finished and looked up at the clock. Five-fifty. _'Best get going'_, he thought.

He went up and out of the door, making sure to lock it up properly. He hid the key inside the potted plant near the staircase. He exited the building and ran towards the grounds. The sun was o just beginning to rise, so the air was still cool as it hit his face. He smiled as he increased the pace and reached the ground with one minute to spare.

He was surprised to see that just as he had reached the ground, his new teacher also reached at the same time. Her eyes showed surprise at his appearance, but she gestured him to follow her. They arrived in the training ground after Anko said to the guards that they were authorized to use it.

Arriving at the middle of the ground, she said, "Sit down, brat. Introduce yourself."

Naruto frowned at the way she said it but did it anyway, "Naruto Uzumaki, age five years, likes are reading and training, dislikes are the people who can't differentiate between a kunai and a sealing scroll, hobbies are none of your business, dream is to become the strongest Hokage ever!" he began in a monotone, became slightly rude in the middle and finished it with a grin and a thumbs up.

Anko grinned in a savage way after his introduction. Not many people had the guts to be rude to her, but this brat had no problem doing it. _'Time to instill the fear'_, she thought maliciously.

Grabbing his collar, she jerked him forward until they were nose to nose. In a deadly whisper, she said, "I don't like brats like you who think that just because they are getting special treatment, they are above others."

Naruto replied, unfazed, "And just because you are older and more powerful than me doesn't mean you have to be rude."

Anko smirked and let go off Naruto, who sat back down. "I like you kid, which means that I won't go easy on you! Get up and give me ten rounds of this ground, fast!"

And so began his training. For a whole four weeks, she just concentrated on his physical conditioning. She wanted him to be physically fit for what she was about to mold him into.

She was surprised at how obediently Naruto followed her commands. Whatever she told him to do, he did it without question. She ran him into the ground every day. So exhausted he was that as soon as she announced that the training for the day was over, he would collapse onto the ground, unable to move. She always carried him back to his home, and laid him in his bed. She also left him a bento every time, knowing he didn't have the energy to cook. Kurama always woke him up to eat.

Naruto thanked her profusely every time, but she always waved him away, saying it was the duty of a sensei to care for the student. She didn't want him to know that she was growing fond of him. That would be embarrassing.

Another good thing that both Naruto and Anko didn't know was that every time Naruto came back exhausted, Kurama always healed him up with his chakra. The good thing about this was that after every session, Naruto's muscles would be stronger than before, requiring much more to get exhausted.

Today is the day he would learn to control chakra. And he was excited as hell. After his usual fifteen rounds of the ground (Anko increased them), Anko decided he was satisfactorily warmed up and began explaining chakra control.

"Alright kid, the first step to controlling chakra is to take a leaf and use your chakra to stick it to your forehead like this", she said, demonstrating the exercise.

Naruto nodded before picking up a leaf from the ground and keeping it on his forehead and imagining his chakra creating suction at the point where the leaf touched his forehead. Surprisingly, it took him only three tries to get the amount of chakra right!

On the fourth try, the leaf was easily sticking to his forehead and he stood there smiling proudly. He knew he would have good chakra control due to his lack of chakra coils. Using chakra for the first time felt really good! He simply had to imagine how his chakra flowed and sort of command it to do so and voila! Task accomplished.

Anko stood there, gaping at Naruto. Most kids took four to five days to get this exercise right, and this kid had done it five minutes. Absolutely unbelievable, and outright ridiculous, she decided. _'Does the term 'normal' even apply to this kid?' _she thought with a twitching eyebrow.

"Hey, Anko-sensei, now that I've got it, what's next?" Naruto asked with a grin. At this point, he was keeping the leaf stick with only minimal concentration.

Anko grinned. A grin that Naruto never liked. It always meant his doom. "Now", she said, taking out shuriken, "Keep that leaf stuck and dodge these!" With that, she threw the shuriken at him.

It was only his danger sense that saved him from skewered. This continued for almost fifteen minutes and at the end of those, Naruto was heavily panting. _'She looked like she almost wanted to kill me!' _he thought, drawing deep breaths.

Anko looked proud, "Well done, Naruto! You successfully dodged the shuriken _and _kept the leaf stuck to your forehead! Take a five minute break!" Not many, no scratch that, _no one _managed that on their first try. It was starting to look like that this kid was born to be a shinobi.

She contemplated if she should teach Naruto the tree walking exercise next. A relatively difficult exercise, a Genin level in fact. But Naruto wasn't even in the academy. Still, doesn't hurt to try, right?

After the five minute break was over, she called Naruto and they both walked towards a tree. "Your next exercise would be to climb this tree with only your feet", she said.

Naruto gave her a quizzical look, "Isn't that kind of impossible, sensei?"

Anko rolled her eyes and lightly bonked him at the back of his head, "With the aid of chakra. Honestly, where does your intelligence go sometimes, out of your head?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly.

Anko then demonstrated the exercise, "This is kind of similar to the leaf sticking exercise, except you are sticking yourself to a tree instead of sticking a leaf to you. If you use too little chakra, your foot won't stick. You use too much chakra; you get blasted off the tree. Begin. You can use a running start if you want."

'_That would be absolutely pointless unless you have the amount of chakra in your leg right'_, thoughtNaruto as he walked to the tree and put his right foot on the bark, regulating the amount of chakra required to stick. After he got it right, he kept in mind the amount of chakra and carefully pushed the same amount in his left leg.

Taking a deep breath, he lifted his left leg and put it on the bark, not losing concentration in his right leg. A huge smile appeared on his face as he successfully stuck to the bark. Tentatively, he took the next step and managed not to fall off. He continued this until he reached the top of the tree.

Anko watched all of this with her jaw on the ground, dango long forgotten. There was no possible explanation as to how Naruto manage to walk up the entire tree in five minutes of learning the exercise. Then she released a resigned sigh, _'I don't even want to know anymore.'_

This became the norm for everything. Naruto mastered tree walking in two hours, water walking in four hours, and spinning a kunai above his hand with his chakra in one day, all the while dodging Anko's shuriken and kunai.

It was now time to give the monthly report to the Hokage.

XXXXXXX

"What?" he asked blankly.

"It's true Hokage-sama!" Anko insisted.

The smoking pipe had long since fallen off his mouth. This had to some kind of genjutsu. There was no way Naruto mastered all the chakra control exercises in just two days. Anko was a very deadly kunoichi, so any students she took, in this case, Naruto, had high standards to meet.

But for Anko to say that Naruto did all of that in just two days, it was too much. He had no doubt that Naruto was very physically capable, but he had an Uzumaki heritage and as such, had monstrous reserves of chakra that could not be matched by anyone of his age. He expected Naruto to have problems in controlling his chakra, but from Anko's report it looked like he had an excellent control of his chakra.

Anko then slowly asked him, knowing the Hokage was rattled to his bones by the news, "Hokage-sama, can I have your permission to start teaching him Ninjutsu and Taijutsu?"

"…..Granted."

XXXXXXX

Naruto stood in his father's library, looking at the volumes of fuinjutsu his mother had left for him. He picked the first volume and left the house.

Anko had very generously given the next day off to him, which he planned to make full use of. For some reason, he thought, that Anko was very surprised at the speed at which he mastered those exercises. He had been asking her when he could start learning Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, but she always said that first he needed to build up endurance and stamina.

After closing the door to his apartment, he set the thick book on the dining table and entered his bedroom, falling asleep. It was a late night after all, and sneaking around made him tired, especially after his sadistic sensei's training.

His alarm rang at seven next morning. Waking up, he did his morning rituals and made himself some breakfast. _'That reminds me, the stock that jiji gave me will be finished soon. I need to go shopping'_, he thought.

After breakfast, he picked up the Fuinjutsu volume and started reading.

He finished it in four hours, including the test that his mother wrote for him at the end of the book. _'I didn't know fuinjutsu was this easy'_, he thought in confusion as he checked the answers of his test.

'**It's not, you insane child'**, Kurama grumbled. He had been seeing and hearing fuinjutsu since the tree hugger's era and frankly, it annoyed the hell out of him. He was much more suited to perform acts of destruction than delicate writing.

Naruto easily ignored him and finished checking the answers. _'All of them correct. No surprise there'_, he thought smugly. Photographic memory was so useful.

He finished another volume the same day, with the same results in the test at the end of the book. Eight hours of Fuinjutsu was mentally exhausting, he thought. He just slept the rest of the day, waking up only to make and eat dinner, and fell asleep again.

The next day, Anko started his Taijutsu training. "I'm going to teach you my style of fighting, Naruto. The snake style requires you to be light and flexible, capable of quick strikes and counterattacks and weaving in between them."

She then grabbed Naruto's collar, "You will learn and master this style in one year, brat or even Kami won't be able to save you from my wrath", she threatened, enforcing her threat with a bit of killing intent.

It had absolutely no effect whatsoever on him, since he already had a taste of Kurama's killing intent. However, he nodded vigorously. Anko was pretty terrifying, even without killing intent .

The next month he spent learning Tai and Ninjutsu simultaneously. Due to his photographic memory and the peculiar ability of his body, he progressed quickly in Taijutsu. He found that even though it was a formidable style, the snake style did not have the symbolizations of all five elements.

Ninjutsu on the other hand, he felt like he was born to do it. It took him only five tries to master the Henge no jutsu, and nine tries to master the Kawarimi. Two days later, he had mastered the seal less Kawarimi.

But no matter how hard he tried, even with his excellent chakra control, could he perform the Bunshin no jutsu. Eventually, Anko got so fed up that they took the matter to the Hokage, who suggested that the Kage Bunshin no jutsu would be more suited for Naruto. Considering how large his chakra reserves were, it would be impossible for him to squeeze a drop of it that was required to perform the Bunshin.

It took two hours for Naruto to learn the Kage Bunshin and when he did learn it, Anko and Hiruzen, who had come to supervise the teaching of the kinjutsu, were dumbstruck at the amount of clones Naruto could make. A hundred clones at Naruto's age stupefied the Hokage so much that it took him almost fifteen minutes to snap out of his shock.

Naruto soon discovered a _very interesting _aspect of the Kage Bunshin. He could remember everything what his clones saw or heard. And he had no qualms abusing the shadow clones after that.

He would make a shadow clone study fuinjutsu while he trained with Anko. In eight days, all the volumes of fuinjutsu were finished. He had even learnt how to print seals onto surfaces with his chakra. Now technically, that would make him a seal master, but his mother had written him a note that even after finishing all the volumes, he would have to be tested by a certified seal master to be considered a seal master.

He knew no one who was one so he asked his jiji if he could test him. But the old man had questions of his own.

"You're telling me that you finished all the volumes of fuinjutsu your mother left you in just ten days?" his voice sounded unbelieving.

Naruto nodded; his expression serious.

Hiruzen let out a small nervous chuckle, "Forgive me if I find that hard to believe, Naruto-kun."

Naruto shrugged. He figured he could tell him of his gifts, "When you have a photographic memory, coupled with shadow clones, you tend to abuse it jiji."

Hiruzen looked shocked at the fact, "You have a photographic memory?!"

Naruto nodded, "Yes."

Hiruzen then sighed , "Aside that, I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but I'm not a certified seal master and as such, I am not qualified to test you", he told Naruto regretfully. "But my student Jiraiya is. Tell you what, when he visits the village next time, I will tell him to test you. Is that okay for you?"

Naruto figured that he had no choice, "Alright."

It had been two months since Anko started training Naruto, and he had progressed spectacularly. With the most common ninjutsu out of the way, she focused solely on his Taijutsu, which grew by leaps and bounds, but he was still far from giving her a challenge.

After those two months, Anko figure that it wouldn't hurt teaching the boy chakra nature transformations.

Naruto sat in front of Anko, who was standing and explaining the chakra nature transformations. "There are five basic nature transformations. Fire, wind, water, lightning and earth. Each element is connected to each other in a way. Fire is weak against water but strong against the wind, wind is strong against lightning but weak against fire, lightning is strong against earth but weak against wind, earth is weak against lightning but strong against water, water is strong against fire but weak against earth", she explained.

She handed him a slip of paper, "That is chakra paper. It will tell you your chakra affinity. If you have fire it will burn, tear in half with wind, shrink if lightning, crumble to dust if earth and soak wet if water."

Naruto nodded and focused a tiny bit of his chakra into the paper. What happened next blew his own mind away, alongside Anko's. Inside his mind, Kyuubi grinned. Even he did not expect that, but it was a nice surprise.

The paper split into three parts. One soaked up very heavily, the second crumpled up into a ball, and the last one burned to ashes. Anko threw up her hands and walked away, muttering things about having early grey hairs and surprises.

Naruto blinked for a second and then grinned. _'Awesome!'_

When the Hokage came to know, he promptly fainted like a schoolgirl. When he woke up, he was convinced that Naruto would grow up to become the most unpredictable ninja ever.

What happened the next three months was chakra nature manipulation. He would make four groups of twenty five, each group practicing a different nature. For the first time, he had a challenge. Changing the nature of chakra was a lot more difficult than he thought. It took him one whole month to master only the first step for elemental manipulation for all four of his affinities. Cutting a leaf in half for wind, collecting water from the leaf for water, shrinking up the leaf for lightning, and burning the leaf to ashes for fire.

The second and final step took him a whole two months. For wind, it was cutting a rock clean in half; for water, it was separating water from other liquids; for lightning, it was cracking a stone into pieces with lightning chakra; for fire, it was boiling water.

Anko had left him to his own devices after he started his elemental training. But she checked on him every now and then. He always teased her on how she was acting like his mother, which always resulted in him having a bruised head. After those three months, however, he met his godfather.

_**Flashback**_

_He was practicing his Taijutsu katas on the training field when he sensed a presence. He was slowly developing his sensory abilities with the help of Kurama. He turned around to see no one, but he now someone was standing just a few feet in front of him._

"_Who's there?" he asked._

_The air in front of him shimmered and a man appeared. He wore red sleeveless coat and pants, a green kimono underneath and geta sandals. He had long white hair and was very well built, standing well over six feet._

"_So you could sense me. Very impressive. Do you know who I am?"_

_Naruto answered as if he wasn't even fazed, "Jiraiya of the Sannin."_

_Jiraiya grinned, "Sensei told me that you mastered all ten volumes of fuinjutsu your mother left you in ten days. I don't believe you", he said in a challenging tone._

_Inside however, he was thinking, 'Oh Minato, Kushina, if only you could see your son right now', he thought wistfully._

_Naruto was also having some thoughts, 'His tone of speaking would suggest that he was familiar with my mother, but how? I know that he was Dad's sensei, which means he also is a fuinjutsu master. But how close was he?'_

_Outward, he shrugged, "Doesn't matter if you do or not. Your job is to test me, nothing else."_

_Jiraiya was a little deflated at how Naruto was acting so detached. He knew that Naruto did not know that he was his godfather, but it still hurt. Reigning in his emotions, he spoke._

"_Let's get this over with then."_

_Three hours later, he stood in the field, staring at Naruto with a gaping jaw. Naruto was standing there, panting. Jiraiya had tested him on every aspect of fuinjutsu. Both written test and how he would apply it in battle. Obviously he lost, but Jiraiya was seriously impressed at how the kid was able to apply fuinjutsu in battle. The versatility was clearly there, along with a touch of unpredictability._

"_What is the result?"_

_Both of them turned to the voice that had spoken. The Sandaime Hokage was standing there with a small smile on his face, as if he knew what the answer was._

"_He passes", Jiraiya replied, still in a daze. Naruto nodded at that and sat down with as much grace he could muster. He promptly fell back after that, asleep before hitting the ground, his last thought being 'I finally became a seal master.'_

_**Flashback end**_

Jiraiya had revealed to him after the test that he was his godfather. Initially, he was downright furious that Jiraiya had just abandoned him to the wolves. But after calming down andthinking it through, he realized that Jiraiya had duties outside the village walls, which is why he could not raise him.

He did not forgive him, saying he will have to earn his forgiveness. Jiraiya looked relieved at that and promised to make it up to him. Before he knew it, one year had passed and it was time for him to enter the academy.

Walking along with his jiji in the school corridors, he wondered if he would be able to make any friends.

Stopping in front of a door, his jiji opened the door, showing a chunin instructor with a scar on his face and his hair shaped into a pineapple ponytail.

"Hokage-sama, is anything wrong?"

Hiruzen waved him away, "Nothing at all, Iruka. I just came here to bring Naruto-kun. He will be starting from today."

Iruka looked at Naruto and Naruto was instantly able to recognize the look. After all, he had received it many times.

Looking into the class, he saw the same look on many of the student's faces. He sighed, _'It will be a long six years.'_

**AN: Sorry if I seemed to have rushed up and made Naruto look op, but I can assure you he is not. He will have his weaknesses. I needed to reach at this point so the next chapter's time frame would be acc. To my plans. Please review and follow!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Author's note: All right, time to address the problems! Kipplee, I don't know if you were being sarcastic or not. Zabzab, I will address your issues first. First, I admit I was fast, a bit too much. Naruto's fuinjutsu was fast, but I needed that for the next chapter. Also, if I have an eidetic memory in addition to shadow clones, I would abuse it like that as well. Also, I haven't exactly said that Naruto mastered his Taijutsu. As for elemental training, come on, Naruto mastered wind in less than a month, with shadow clones. Take a hundred and divide them for each element. In fact, the second step of nature manipulation, this Naruto took two months, a lot more than Shippuden. I never introduced any Ninjutsu as well.**

**As for you calling OP, if anyone deserves to be called that it is Kakashi Hatake. At five years of age, he was in the academy, becoming a chunin at six. He knew earth manipulation even before than the academy. How do you explain that? Also, this story isn't about Anko and Naruto, it is about Naruto and Temari, who will come later. As for his chakra abilities, there will be no drawbacks, but I will try my best to explain how it came to be down the line. I also apologize if I sounded rude, but I am a bit blunt. Now onto the story!**

**P.S. : Naruto will seem op, having abilities that he should not have at his age. But he won't be invincible. He will get roughed up at times too. Just don't read it like he is jonin class, because he is not, however it may seem. Please, I beg of you! **

_**Time skip : Six years**_

A lone figure was standing on top of the gates of Konoha. He was tall for his age, standing at five feet. He was wearing a white and black, half sleeves jacket with two orange stripes on the sleeves, connected to the ones going along his zip which stopped at his chest, his high collar standing up. There was a blue lightning symbol on his back, in the black stripe. He wore a full sleeves black shirt underneath the jacket with two bands, one on his wrists and the other just beneath his elbows. He wore dark blue ANBU pants with orange stripes on the side, going all the way to the ankle. He wore simple blue shoes with white soles. **[ Think of the pants like Sasuke's in **_**Road to Ninja, **_**but instead of sandals it's shoes].** On his right thigh he wore a holster held with white tape, and a standard shinobi pouch tucked in at the back of his pants, on the left side. His bright, spiky blonde hair was tied in a messy ponytail.

He was Naruto Uzumaki, and today was the day of his graduation exam. As he stood on top of the gate, he reflected on what he had gone through in the six years of academy.

Just a few days into the academy told him that he was going to receive the short end of every stick. Even though he had no need to learn the academy Taijutsu style, he could tell that the stances taught to him were all wrong. But he gave no indication that he knew this.

Theory lessons were roughly the same. The teachers taught the different concepts in the class, but never answered any of his doubts. Instead, they tried to sabotage his answers as much as they could. Not that they could do that. Being a genius had its perks.

On the bright side, he made a lot of new friends. Friends that he could actually count on.

Hinata Hyuga of the Hyuga clan was the first friend she made. He could tell she was an incredibly shy girl who had confidence issues, but a very warm person to befriend. She spoke in the language of stutters, which for some reason, seemed to intensify around him. Her face also turned very red whenever he spoke to her and she fainted most of the times, which is why he let her do most of the talking. She became his friend after he saved her from bullies.

Chouji Akimichi of the Akimichi clan was a chubby boy who always seemed to have some snack in his hand. Chouji had a very big heart once he got to know him through a shared lunch. He was a very caring person, very kind and strong. But he also suffered from lack of self-confidence. He was also very sensitive about his weight, angered very quickly if someone called him fat. Nonetheless, Naruto considered him a dear friend.

Shikamaru Nara of the Nara clan was Chouji's best friend, because he was the first one to look past his weight and find who Chouji truly was. He was also incredibly lazy, his catchphrase being "Troublesome". Along with that, he was probably the most intelligent person Naruto had met. He didn't know Shikamaru's exact IQ, but he knew his lazy friend was high up in that department, even more so than Naruto. Shikamaru was a true genius at Shogi, which is where his weakness also lied. He spent most of his time cloud gazing, or playing shogi to sharpen something which was already sharp. He was the epitome of lazy.

But Shikamaru and Chouji were Naruto's closest friends. They even took part in the occasional prank that Naruto played. They even enjoyed the punishments they got together after testing their teacher's, Iruka Umino's patience. Every moment he spent with them, a strong desire to protect them pulsed in his heart.

Kiba Inuzuka of the Inuzuka clan was more of an annoyance that grated on his nerves. He was short tempered and impulsive, which did not help him at all. He was also headstrong, which was probably the reason he got very easily angered in his spars and made mistakes. He always carried his ninken, Akamaru with him at all times. Akamaru was a small puppy who fit in Kiba's jacket. He always responded to Kiba's nonsense and was always on his side. He held a one sided rivalry with Naruto and Sasuke.

Shino Aburame of the Aburame clan was a calm, collected and a mysterious person, a stark contrast to Kiba's personality. He rarely smiled and gave almost no emotion away while speaking. He was always on the side of logic, always having some sort of explanation to his answers. It always drove Kiba nuts when Shino started to preach logic to him. Naruto made friends with him because Shino was also treated like an outcast because of his ability to control insects. Naruto could empathize with him. He sometimes sat with Shino just so he could enjoy the silence.

Ino Yamanaka from the Yamanaka clan was a very loud, outspoken girl, and a very devoted fangirl of Sasuke Uchiha. She was also very proud of her appearance, eating less so she could appear more attractive for her 'Sasuke-kun'. She was a very kind-hearted person at heart, but that side of her was rarely seen by Naruto. She also loved gossip and had made her goal to ensure that nothing stayed secret from her. Not someone he trusted right now, but was sure he would later.

Sakura Haruno was a civilian girl who was a rival of Ino's for Sasuke's attention. She was highly self-conscious about her large forehead, which she hid behind her pink bangs. She only had eyes for Sasuke, and often tried to ask him out on dates. Of course, she was always denied. But she tried to immediately hit Naruto after every denial, believing it was his fault. Of course, Naruto never allowed her to hit him, but simply avoided her. There were times though, when he suspected she had split personality disorder. He didn't trust her at all.

These people were the only ones who were worth acknowledging. The rest of them simply treated him as the rest of the village did. But there was one person who was closest to Naruto's heart out of all of them.

Iruka Umino was his class instructor. He at first thought that Iruka was just like the others. But somewhere down the line, when Iruka scolded him for one of his pranks, he was surprised that he cared for him enough to scold him. He then started treating Naruto for who he was, instead of what he contained. He occasionally took Naruto to Ichiraku Ramen to eat his favorite dish and was very kind to him. Naruto always felt that Iruka was perhaps the only person who he felt a familial relationship with aside from the Sandaime.

Sasuke Uchiha was, in the simplest terms, a class A douchebag. He always acted like he was the god's greatest gift to mankind. In short, Naruto was stupefied how arrogant Sasuke was. He always brooded in class, which somehow his fangirls perceived as "cool". He had perhaps the strangest personalities Naruto had ever seen. A mixture of superiority and inferiority complex. Naruto hated how Sasuke was labeled a genius, when he really wasn't. Genius was what Naruto would call the Yondaime Hokage, the Nidaime Hokage, Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha. Not Sasuke.

Sasuke always evaluated new people that he met. If they were weaker than him, he would arrogantly disregard them, feeling they would hold him back. If they were stronger, he would relentlessly try to surpass them, believing he should be their equal, if not stronger. This infuriated Naruto the most. He hated how Sasuke believed that he should have no equals.

He knew how Sasuke's clan was massacred in a single night by the prodigy of the Uchiha clan, Itachi. No one knew why he had done it, but it had left Sasuke deeply scarred. Naruto tried to befriend him at first, thinking the lone boy could use a friend. Instead, he was rudely rejected and outright insulted; Sasuke had said that he had no wish to befriend the class clown, who was also the dead last.

Since then, Naruto simply stopped interacting with him outside spars, where he forced himself to lose every time; he did not want to reveal all his cards just yet. But on the inside, he had a desire to be acknowledged by him.

His training had gone very well in the last six years. He had finished his Taijutsu training in one and a half year, with six additional months of self-training. After that, Anko had proudly declared him to be a master of the Snake style Taijutsu after getting stalemated in a spar with him. It was after this he had started creating his own style, using the snake style as foundation. His own imagination was very useful in creating moves, blocks, strikes that were completely unique to his style.

After he had mastered the Snake style, he had started to work on his speed and with the help of shadow clones, had drawn resistance seals on his body. It was a bit weird at first, but he quickly got accustomed to it. Currently, he was on the twelfth level of the resistance seal. He could have already started using the training simulation, but felt that the time was not right, so he held off until he became a Genin, preferring to spar with Anko.

Her help was invaluable in creating his new style, which was very unpredictable; exactly how he wanted it to be. His style had an attack stance, but he preferred to let his opponents attack him first. He had incorporated his danger sense into his style, making it even more efficient. His style was a combination of linear and unpredictability; he would attack whenever he saw the openings and attack however he could.

He had based his style so he did not have any restrictions or limitations. In short, he had successfully created and mastered his own fighting style in five years and just like his father said, it was as aggressive as fire, as sharp as wind, as fast as lightning, as strong as the earth, as fluid as water and as unpredictable as the nature. The perfect fighting style. He decided to name it the _**Elemental fist**_. Pretty badass.

His sensory abilities had been perfected over the course of six years. He had help from his jiji, whose sensei, the Nidaime, was said to be the greatest sensor of his time. He had graciously allowed him to study his sensei's scrolls on sensing. The more Naruto read, the more he was convinced that the Nidaime was a genius of his father's caliber. He had developed his own sensing techniques; which Naruto had eagerly learnt. Naruto could now accurately sense chakra to the point that he could identify nature affinities if he concentrated hard enough.

His Ninjutsu had progresses far as well. His chakra control and reserves only increased over time and he made sure he had enough jutsu in his arsenal of all four of his affinities. He had also created a way of copying jutsu from others. Whenever he would watch someone perform a jutsu, he would immediately hone in on the chakra in that person's body, sensing how it was being molded. His photographic memory combined with his now controlled danger sense ensured he could copy hand seals in slower perception. This skill had greatly impressed his jiji. He was also pretty smug about the fact that he had successfully copied the Great fireball jutsu from Sasuke from when he had once watched him train.

Also, he had literally begged the Sandaime to let him study from the Nidaime's library, considering that he had four affinities that could rival Tobirama's water affinity and the former Hokage literally had a huge library that was full of jutsus of all nature transformations. Sarutobi was outraged at his request, but Naruto had reasoned that he had the ability to make use of them. Besides, the Nidaime had no use for them now since he was dead. Sarutobi had very reluctantly allowed him to study from the library, but had made him swear that he won't tell anyone.

The fact that he was a seal master had helped him study and understand the Hiraishin scroll his father had left him. He had to admit that it was incredibly complex.

From what he understood, it was a part of the rarely studied field of space-time. It was a perfect combination of Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu. His father had left him an astounding amount of chakra theory for him to recreate the jutsu. In summary, it was using fuinjutsu to create a temporary tear in space-time, traveling through it and appearing on the other end near-instantly. It relied on the principle of teleportation; once you enter the tear of space-time, your body is dispersed into millions of particles of chakra that re-assembled just before you exited the space-time.

Naruto's challenge was in recreating the _jutsu shiki_ (seal formula). His father's famous kunai had only five kanji on it that he used very successfully. The scroll was enormous, even with his father's improved notes. He had to shorten it, just like his father did, into five or six kanji.

At first he had made the mistake of using his father's formula, imprinted on a kunai, the difference being that instead of his father's chakra, it was his. It even sort of worked, but he slowly discovered the problem in that method. It was taking him too long to sense the kunai; he was wasting chakra as well. He had then re-read that every Hiraishin formula was unique to its user. He had to painstakingly start from scratch to build his own formula, which would require a lot of time.

Two months of curses and ink marks later, he had proudly created his own Hiraishin formula, with a few interesting modifications of his own.

He had modified his formula so that instead of sensing the kunai and forcing yourself into the space-time, which had become easier with his own formula, he maintained a _very weak _link with whatever he had put his formula in. Whenever he molded chakra and honed on a particular kunai, the link would instantly teleport him, without him having to force himself through. He now required significantly less chakra to use Hiraishin, and sensing the kunai became easier.

His formula was four kanji symbols forming the phrase, _**'Fall down seven times, stand up eight.'**_ It was his proudest creation yet. There was one last modification he had made, but gave credit of it to Kurama.

Kurama had very strategically pointed out that he would not be able to use Hiraishin in places where there is water. For four days straight, he worked on another formula which would allow his kunai to stick on water surface.

When he had finally tried the flying thunder god, he was ecstatic. But he also discovered the jutsu's disadvantages. It took time getting used to. It took him thirty-seven successful teleport attempts to end up on the other side without nauseating.

He still sucked at Genjutsu. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't perform a single one. But thanks to his sensory abilities, he could easily break out of one. But this hadn't been tested as of yet. Kurama had very patiently told him that due to the abundance of yang chakra in him, he could never perform Genjutsu, which required yin chakra.

He had pondered on whether to learn kenjutsu or not, but something inside him (Not Kurama) told him that he was not cut out for it. To compensate for it, he had perfected his fighting with dual kunai held in reverse grip. He also knew that he could coat the kunai with wind chakra to sharpen it and lengthen its reach, but had yet to try it out in a real fight.

An important thing he had discovered in the last six years was that he was alone. He knew that before as well but had no idea how bad it was. Whenever the parents would come pick their children up, they would turn scornful gazes on him. It cut him every time, but he never allowed it to show on his face. He simply covered with a bored, indifferent look.

He had developed a technique of his own after learning the _shunshin no jutsu_, just for battle purposes. The _shunshin _simply took too much time for his taste, and he did not want to become too reliant on the _Hiraishin_. Therefore, he created _shunpo_, the flash step. He would focus his chakra into his leg and would vanish in a sudden burst of speed. He created this for short distance purposes in a fight. He was probably at low-chunin to mid-chunin speeds, counting with the resistance seals on.

He also had his IQ tested by jiji. With an IQ of 177, he was one of the rare geniuses that came once in a generation. He was in league with the Yondaime, the Nidaime and Itachi Uchiha.

As he stood upon the gates reminiscing, a sudden noise caught his attention. He smirked, _'That's right, all the alarms would be sounding now, waking them up from their precious sleep.' _It was his final prank before he became an official ninja.

All the civilian council members had been pranked by him. He had set off a timed-release stink bomb in each of the houses, courtesy of Fuinjutsu. He knew the blame would come onto him, but he had made sure nothing connected him to the crime. He also knew that the ANBU would be searching for him due to his prankster reputation. Normally he would proudly take credit for his work, but since it was the important people this time, he made sure to have an alibi, which was the academy. He had specifically set them off just five minutes before the first bell rang, ten minutes before which he was already in class usually. He easily sensed the jutsu shiki he had imprinted in the tree outside the academy and silently vanished in a tiny, blue flash.

Appearing on the tree, he closed his eyes as if searching for something. The next moment, the air around him shimmered a little. Naruto then puffed into smoke, signifying that he had perfectly substituted with the shadow clone that was sitting inside the class.

The class was as usual, very noisy and chaotic. Thankfully, his shadow clone was sitting on the last bench, which meant he did not draw unnecessary attention. As the memories of the clone came to him, he blinked and then scoffed at the stupidity of the people. _'Did they really think I would keep wearing that orange jumpsuit?' _The shadow clone had received stares from people in his change of clothes. Sakura had yelled at him to not act like he was cool, but he had ignored it easily, as was his habit.

The clock struck eight, and Iruka-sensei entered the classroom followed by Mizuki-sensei. Naruto hated him. Mizuki always tried to fail Naruto in all the tests by casting Genjutsu on them, making them appear tougher. But Naruto paid no mind and continued writing the wrong answers to maintain his facade of dead last. He gave no indication that he knew of Mizuki's pathetic ways to fail him.

Finally, the class settled down and Mizuki handed out the papers. As he gave it to Naruto, a very ugly sneer appeared on his face, kind of like a sick smile. Naruto looked at his paper and back to Mizuki, who seemed to be glowing with triumph. Naruto sent an _'Are you kidding me?' _look mixed in a deadpan stare. He then promptly dispelled the Genjutsu on the test, making a blank page appear.

'_So this is your game?' _he thought with amusement.

Raising his hand, he said in a cool tone that perfectly matched his facial expression of bored indifference, "Mizuki-sensei, I believe that you put this blank page here by mistake."

Mizuki's thunderous expression almost made him smirk, but he reigned it in with experience. He came up to Naruto, a smile straining his face. "Thanks for pointing it out, Naruto. Good thing you spotted it, otherwise you would have failed", he said, placing the real test on his desk. Turning back, a furious expression came across his face. _'How did the demon spot the Genjutsu?! He never could do it before!'_

Usually when tests were conducted, Naruto would purposely answer so he barely passed or failed. But today, he decided to let his intelligence shine through. He could hold back a little less today.

He finished the paper with twenty minutes to spare, but kept the appearance of writing as to avoid suspicion. He could see that Sakura and Sasuke had also finished roughly at the same time. It was not surprising since Sakura was considered the class bookworm and Sasuke was quite intelligent. Everyone else finished at roughly at same time around.

After collecting their papers, Iruka-sensei called out, "All right everyone, next section will be weapons. Proceed to the practice fields."

Naruto waited in the crowd for his turn. Since it was alphabetical order, he was pretty much in the last. He watched as Sasuke's turn came and observed as Sasuke hit all the ten bullseyes for kunai and shuriken, save for one. 9 bullseyes out of 10 was the highest score yet. Finally, it was his turn.

He went in front of the crowd and to the box where the shuriken were kept. He took five of them out and holding three in his left hand and two in his right, threw them all simultaneously. He watched as they all hit bullseye with boredom, as if he did this every day. He proceeded to do the same with kunai.

The whole class was shocked and gaping at what they saw. Naruto Uzumaki, the class clown and dead last, had beaten Sasuke Uchiha's score very easily. The said Uchiha was frowning heavily, not liking that the dead last of the class had beaten his score, that too looking as if he was barely concentrating.

Iruka was shocked as well. Naruto never displayed such skill before. "G-good job, Naruto. You have the highest score in the class", he complimented, before moving onto the next student, not noticing that Mizuki was barely keeping himself from strangling the blonde. The said blonde turned in his direction and gave a smirk, infuriating him even more.

After the weapons part of the exams was over, Iruka called out, "Everyone, gather around for the Taijutsu portion of this exam."

Naruto frowned minutely at this. Every time they practiced Taijutsu, he was always up against Sasuke, no doubt because Mizuki wanted to see him lose. This time would be no different.

He was right.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, please enter the ring", Mizuki announced almost gleefully. He was fully prepared to see Naruto beaten down and if he was lucky, he could fail him.

"Beat baka-Naruto, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screeched, causing many people to cover their ears. Ino supported her by shouting as well, "Show him you're the best, Sasuke-kun!" Naruto could have sworn that he saw blood coming out of Akamaru's ears.

Almost no one cheered for him, but his sensitive ears caught a soft spoken voice saying, "G-good luck, N-Naruto-kun."

He smiled in thanks at Hinata, who fainted at his smile. He then turned his attention towards Sasuke, the same bored look from before back on his face.

Sasuke stepped in with a serious frown, still feeling upset that the _dobe _of all people beat him. Naruto still had the infuriating look of bored indifference on his face, as if he barely considered Sasuke a challenge. Sasuke almost snarled, _'That dobe is mocking me!'_

"Hajime", Mizuki called out and jumped out of the ring. Sasuke slid into his clan's fighting style, the Interceptor fist. Since it mainly relied on the Sharingan, he could not use it to his full potential. _'But I don't need the Sharingan to beat dobe of all people'_, he thought smugly. But wasn't prepared for what came to him.

Naruto was contemplating whether he should end this quickly or prolong it, just to see how angry he could get Sasuke. _'Nah, I'll end this quick'_, he thought. He would use every advantage he could get. It was his fighting style after all.

He stood in a semi-ready stance, watching as Sasuke did not bother to enter his until the signal to begin was given. _'Got him'_, he thought with a mental smirk.

As soon as the signal was given, Naruto didn't waste any time to get into a stance. Sasuke had provided an opening, and he would fully use it.

He used the speed he had built up all over the years to get into Sasuke's guard in an instant. One moment Naruto was standing opposite to him, another moment he was kneeing Sasuke's chin, very painfully. The force of the blow was such that Sasuke was thrown right out of the ring. Even though he recovered mid-air and was able to soften his landing, a furious expression was on his face. Kurama was heartily laughing inside his mind, pleased to see Sasuke getting his ass handed to him.

The class was silent for a moment. Naruto had beaten Sasuke a second time, that too in just one move. Then came the accusations, "Naruto cheated, Iruka-sensei!" "There's no way baka-Naruto can beat Sasuke-kun! He cheated, Iruka sensei!"

Iruka was getting fed up at how the fangirls were shouting ridiculous and useless accusations. He could see what Naruto had used was pure speed, and nothing else. "Shut up! Naruto has not cheated! If anyone knows better speak up!"

Naruto was watching the drama unfold with hands crossed across his chest, amusement dancing in his eyes. He almost laughed when Sakura, the ever devout fangirl, screeched, "Iruka-sensei! There's no way baka-Naruto could beat Sasuke-kun! Therefore he must have cheated!"

'_That's a very logical reason, isn't it?' _Naruto thought with sarcasm.

Iruka turned a stern glare on her, "And just **how **did Naruto cheat, care to explain Sakura?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but closed it since nothing came to mind. An embarrassed blush spread across her face and she fell back into the crowd.

Iruka nodded and called out, "Everyone head inside for the Ninjutsu portion."

Mizuki was looking like someone shit in his breakfast and made him eat it. _'Don't you get so smug, demon! I __**will **__fail you somehow!' _he thought angrily.

They headed into their class and everyone sat down, keeping their distance from Naruto, who had gone to the back of the class and had pulled out a book to read.

"All right, you will all sit here until we call out your name. When we do, come into the next room for your exam", Iruka said before calling the first student.

Sasuke had long since gone back to brooding again, though this time he had a faint aura of anger around him. _'How is the dobe so good? I never saw any signs of skill in him and every time he was the last in class, so why was he able to beat me __**that **__easily?! It doesn't make any sense!' _he thought furiously.

Soon enough, it was Sasuke's turn. He went out of the door and returned five minutes, a hitai-ate on his head. He smirked in the direction of Naruto, but grit his teeth when he saw that Naruto wasn't even paying attention to his surroundings; he was too engrossed in his little book.

'_This book is very interesting'_, he thought as he read the _'Tips and tricks of Fuinjutsu I' _written by his parents. So engrossed he was that he almost missed his name being called out. He snapped his book shut and put it in his pocket. He then proceeded into the next room.

Iruka and Mizuki were sitting on chairs, a desk in front of them. Mizuki watched with barely hidden glee, _'Today you will fail, demon!'_

"All right Naruto, perform the _Henge no jutsu_", Iruka instructed. Naruto nodded and formed the ram seal. A puff of smoke later, the Yondaime Hokage was standing in front of them.

Iruka smiled. Naruto was full of surprises today, "Very good, Naruto. Now perform the _kawarimi no jutsu_."

Naruto nodded and a second later, Mizuki was sitting on the ground, wondering how he came there. A second later, he turned furious eyes onto Naruto, who was looking a little too innocent, "I'm sorry sensei, are you ok?" he asked, with fake concern in his voice.

Mizuki got up and brushed himself. "I'm ok Naruto, don't worry", he said with gritted teeth.

Iruka nodded approvingly, "Excellent Naruto, you performed it without smoke and without seals too. You get extra points for that."

He looked up from the paper and said, "Lastly, perform the _Bunshin no jutsu_." There was some fear in his voice. Naruto could never perform it perfectly.

But Naruto surprised them yet again. Holding up a half ram seal, there was a puff of smoke and three Narutos were standing in front of him. Of course, they were actually _Kage Bunshin_, but they didn't need to know that. He was actually proud that he only needed a half ram to execute _Kage Bunshin_, instead of the full seal.

Mizuki watched helplessly as Iruka declared Naruto passed and told him to pick between black and blue. Naruto picked the blue hitai-ate and asked if Iruka could tie it just beneath his left jacket sleeve.

Walking out of the room, he saw that the class was giving him the same, gaping look, _again_. Annoyance passed on his face, "What are you looking at?!"

Kiba pointed an accusing finger at him, a shocked look on his face, "You got a hitai-ate!"

Naruto simply gave him a deadpan stare. Slowly clapping he sarcastically drawled, "Well done Kiba, you now have a firm grasp of the obvious."

Snickers erupted in the classroom as Naruto made Kiba feel stupid with a single statement. Kiba prepared to pounce on Naruto when Iruka entered the classroom, " Everyone settle down!"

After everyone was seated, he said, "Those people who have passed will come tomorrow in the morning for team assignments. You can leave now."

Naruto leisurely walked out of the academy, in no hurry. He had nothing else to do, so he sat down on the swing on the academy's tree. He sat there for a long time, thinking of what he will eat today. He sensed someone coming and hid his scowl. _'What does Mizuki want now?'_

Mizuki came up behind Naruto, "Congratulations on passing, Naruto!" he almost threw up in his mouth saying that.

Naruto curtly replied, "Thanks." He said no more than that; he didn't need to. Mizuki approached him, so he will be the one to talk.

"I was impressed on how you performed Naruto. But you still don't have enough points to claim Rookie of the Year. I will offer you a special test, if you're interested in that title", he said.

Naruto just looked at the man. **'What a fucking idiot'**, Kurama helpfully supplied. But Naruto wanted to see where this was going.

"Really Mizuki-sensei?" he hopefully asked.

Mizuki smiled at how easily he fooled the demon, "Yeah. You just need to take a scroll from the Hokage vault in the Hokage's office and bring it to me beside the old shed in the forest at midnight. You know that right? Bring it to me and consider yourself the Rookie of the Year!" he said as he walked away.

'**He really has a very low opinion of you, doesn't he?' **Kurama commented. Naruto mentally agreed, _'He just asked me to steal the Forbidden scroll. What a moron!' _he thought as he flashed to the _Hiraishin _shiki in his apartment. He had a seal to make.

XXXXXXX

The sky was dark with clouds, shrouding the village in shadows. It was perfect for him to sneak around. In a series of flash steps, he was at the Hokage tower in minutes.

Dodging the ANBU on patrol, he easily masked his chakra signature and sneaked into the office. He soon found the Hokage vault and took out a piece of paper, a complex seal drawn on it. He slapped it onto the vault door and watched as it glowed for a moment.

He knew opening the door was no problem for him, but the alarms that would sound after would be. Which is why, he created a seal that would suppress the alarms of any seal for roughly ten minutes. Enough for him to complete his task.

He took the scroll and slung it around him. He exited the way he came from, but paused for a moment. "What's up, jiji?"

Hiruzen replied as if he totally hadn't caught Naruto stealing, "The night strolls are often very peaceful for me. I trust that the scroll would be returned?" that was more of an order.

Naruto simply nodded, making his way to the exit when Hiruzen stopped him, "You know it would look suspicious if it looked like I just let you through."

A mischievous grin almost split his face in half. This was the perfect time to try _it_. He turned around, not bothering to hide his grin. He put his hands in the ram seal, whispering, _"Oiroke no jutsu!" _A puff of smoke revealed a curvaceous and an extremely beautiful blonde female Naruto, clad in birthday clothes. Wisps of smoke were covering the more important bits. It was the Sandaime's weakness as well as his sweetest dream.

A huge amount of blood burst from his nose with such force that he fell backwards unconscious, having a perverted smile on his face.

Naruto released the _Henge_, barely holding himself from laughing out loud. _'Yosh! Oiroke no jutsu is a success!' _he thought in celebration before flash stepping out and into the forest.

He arrived with half an hour to spare. Shrugging, he put the scroll on ground and opened it up, looking for something useful. He found the _Kage Bunshin _along with its explosive counterpart, _Bunshin Daibakuha_. He also found the _Gojo Kibaku Fuda_, a jutsu created by the Nidaime. It was about self-replicating explosive tags. A wicked grin crossed his face, _'I'll have so much fun with this one'._

He also found a very interesting theory on how to change the color of your lightning. A thoughtful look crossed his face and he mused, "It will be cool if I can do that. The blue of lightning hurts my eyes. Red lightning sounds much better."

He always avoided Raiton because it was just too bright for his eyes. So for the next two hours, he relentlessly practiced changing the color of his lightning. It was tedious work, but he was able to do it, without shadow clones.

At the end of two hours, he lightly panted but watched in pride as red currents of lightning danced across his body. _'I did it! Whoo! The theory was easy to understand, but not so much when implementing'_, he thought with relief. The red lightning was significantly better on the eyes and was less chakra consuming, though he did not know why.

Suddenly, he sensed a familiar chakra and smiled, _'About time someone came looking for me.'_

A few moments later, Iruka burst out of the bushes, looking around wildly. When he spotted Naruto innocently sitting on the ground with the Forbidden scroll on his lap, he snapped.

"Naruto", he began in a strained voice, "Just what do you think you are doing?!" he ended in a shout.

Naruto, to his credit, wasn't rattled a bit. He just smiled widely and decided to out the traitor, "Well, Mizuki-sensei told me to bring this scroll for him here. So, I was just waiting for him, Iruka-sensei."

A cold feeling washed over him at that, "Mizuki told you that?! But-"

"Explanations later, Iruka-sensei. For now, be on your guard", Naruto calmly said as he stood up and slung the scroll over him, hands crossed over his chest as if waiting for something.

Iruka was about to grill him further when his instincts screamed at him to dodge. He leaped aside to dodge the hail of shuriken, but one struck his sleeve onto the shed and another got buried in his thigh. Naruto lazily caught the kunai that was heading towards him between two of his fingers.

A second later Mizuki appeared before them, smiling smugly. "Well done, Naruto. Now hand over that scroll to me", he said.

Naruto was about to speak when Iruka shouted, "Mizuki, why are you doing this?!"

Mizuki growled, "For power, you idiot! I want power, nothing else. Naruto, hand it over. Right. Now."

"Don't do it, Naruto!" Iruka shouted desperately as he struggled to free himself.

Mizuki smiled sickly, "Do you know why everyone hates you, Naruto?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, curious to hear what the traitor had to say, "Oh, do tell."

"Don't do it, Mizuki!" Iruka shouted. This could not happen! It would absolutely break Naruto's spirit!

"It's because you're the Kyuubi! Twelve years ago, when the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi, he didn't kill it! He sealed it into a baby, which happened to be you! You hold the killer who took thousands of lives that day, including Iruka's parents!" he finished in a crazed tone.

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen, who was watching from his ball, had gone pale. _'This isn't good. That idiot Mizuki has told Naruto of the secret!' _But then he noticed that Naruto hadn't reacted to that at all.

His face became paler, nearly to the point of white. _'Could it be that he already knows?' _He refocused himself and watched.

XXXXXXX

Naruto simply gave Mizuki his patented look, "Are you done displaying your stupidity?" Mizuki was as confused as Iruka. "You are obviously unworthy of your rank since you can't tell the difference between a sealing scroll and the kunai which is sealed into it. As for the Kyuubi, I have already known for six years", he calmly revealed.

Iruka had gone pale at that. Naruto had known since he started the academy…

Mizuki was growling at the insult aimed at him. How dare that demon insult him?!

"And you tried to hurt Iruka-sensei", here his tone turned menacing, " So I really can't let you go scot free." Naruto was contemplating whether to knock Mizuki out with a simple Raiton jutsu, or give him third degree burns with a Katon jutsu. Logic, logic, logic…..

'_Fuck logic! He just tried to hurt Iruka! Let's go for brute force!' _With that, he formed a half ram seal and instantly, the whole clearing around them was filled with smoke. As soon as the smoke cleared up, Mizuki became paler than he already was.

Hundreds of Naruto surrounded him. Every inch of the clearing was covered by a Naruto, each of them looking at him with those menacing blue eyes. He had a sudden realization, same as Iruka. The clones he created in the exam were shadow clones!

"Let's go!" One of them shouted and together, the whole army of Naruto descended upon him. Naruto walked up to Iruka, all the while listening to the sounds of bones cracking and breaking. He dispelled the clones and hid a small wince at the memories. Mizuki was literally a broken man now, in both the ways.

Naruto knelt down beside Iruka, freeing him easily and helping him up. Iruka had a confused expression on his face, "Naruto, do you…?"

"Yeah, I know about him. We're actually very good friends", he revealed nonchalantly, laughing at the horror on Iruka's face. In a much gentler tone, he said, "Now let's get you to the hospital, sensei. That thigh wound won't heal itself."

In a flash step, they disappeared.

XXXXXXX

The search was called off when Naruto and Iruka returned to the Hokage with the scroll. The Hokage commended them for stopping Mizuki from escaping the village with the scroll. He also gave Naruto a B-rank mission pay, as well as a B-rank mission on his record. He wanted to ask him about him knowing the Kyuubi, but decided that now wasn't the best time; so, he let him go. Thanking his jiji, he exited the tower and instantly flashed to the _Hiraishin _formula in his apartment.

He took of his clothes and fell onto the bed in his boxers. Pulling the covers on him, he smiled and closed his eyes. His Shinobi life was off to a great start.

Tomorrow will be interesting.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews guys! Love them all! First order of business, Elder Sibling, sorry to disappoint but Naruto will remain on team 7 for the story to reach where I want it to go. Ky111, thank you for your words. Onto the main topic, I assume you have read the Dark Phoenix? If not, then please do! It's awesome! My point is, Naruto is looking like jonin level, but my standards are quite different. Naruto might seem jonin, but that doesn't mean Kakashi will be weak. Kakashi will be proportionately strong. Onto the story!**

Naruto had a hard time sleeping that night, but he could hardly be blamed. He was officially a ninja! On top of that, he would meet his new teammates tomorrow, but he had a bad feeling about that. He tried to ignore it, which was easier done than said. The feeling was easily buried beneath the excitement he was feeling.

Over the years, his body had an internalized clock, which was very beneficial health wise, but unfortunately did not allow him to sleep more than seven hours, no matter how much he wanted to. At five in the morning, his eyes would snap open by themselves, his body having sufficiently rested itself and ready for the day. As was the case today.

Which is why he was so confused when he woke up at his regular time of five in the morning, not feeling any tiredness from the events of last night. While not complaining at the lack of tiredness, irritation slowly took hold of him, making him frown deeply. By all means, he should have easily slept till nine in the morning. One late arrival to class wouldn't hurt him at all.

'_No use whining about it. Best start my day with the usual'_, he mentally grumbled and got out of bed. Quickly finishing his morning rituals and dressing up, he took two bananas and gobbled them up. He figured his irritation would be gone by the end of his morning run. Inside his mind, Kurama was trying to keep his sniggers from echoing in Naruto's mind. He had initially decided to let Naruto rest because of his late night, but his sense of mischief decided to manifest itself and he changed his decision. He let a larger amount of his chakra than usual in Naruto's body, just enough so Naruto would wake up at his usual time instead of his natural seven hours.

Stepping outside, Naruto felt the slightly chilly air of the morning. The sky was still dark, but it was perfect for him. A sudden thought struck to him, _'How about I run with my resistance seals off today? Get used to the normal speed. What do you say, Kurama?'_

Kurama gave a yawn that reverberated through Naruto's mind. He forcefully clenched his jaw to prevent his own from happening. Kurama replied, **'It's a good idea. You should get used to running without seals every once in a while, Naruto. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to control your own speed. You would just speed past the place you intent to stop.'**

Naruto nodded, agreeing with Kurama. He wondered if his father had the same problems, but pushed those thoughts aside. _'Best get used to it gradually'_, he thought. Making a ram seal, he lowered the resistance seal on his body from level 12 to six. The change was immediate; he felt really light and like the amount of energy in his body had doubled.

He started running and was surprised at his own speed. Kurama had been frighteningly accurate; he was currently running at a speed which children would call close to sprinting and the worrying part about the whole thing was, he wasn't even controlling it. _'At the end of this run, I __**will **__get used to this'_, he determinedly thought.

It took him almost five rounds of the village to get used to it and by the end of five rounds, he was comfortably running at the speed he usually ran, not having any feeling of being tired at all. _'I wonder if this feeling can be compared to freedom'_, he thought with a smile. _'Running without a care in the world, feeling as if nothing is holding you back.'_

Eventually, he decided to sprint all out and once he started feeling tired, he would run without any resistance, getting used to running without it. After another one and a half lap of sprinting, he began panting and figured that the time was right to release the seal.

He was just about to do it when he saw something ahead of him. He was closing on a person wearing a, _'Oh god, is that a spandex jumpsuit?!' _He was very much grossed out by the sight and figured overtaking the person was in his best interest.

Instantly releasing the seal, he shot forward once more, having not increased his pace by himself at all. He was soon running neck to neck with a kid probably his own age who had a shining, bowl cut hairstyle and huge eyebrows which looked more like caterpillars, bandages wrapped up his forearms and his hitai-ate wrapped as a belt. He also wore orange leg warmers.

The kid glanced towards him and flashed a brilliant smile of white teeth shining like metal. He spoke in a loud voice, "A very youthful morning to you! May I know who you are?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow at the loud voice. Perhaps this is his normal way of speaking, he mused. Somehow, a quiet voice did not suit this kid. And what is with the 'youthful morning'? Outward he said, "Good morning! It is nice to see someone else running at this time. My name is Naruto, by the way."

He expected the usual frown of disgust and hate, but he did not expect the kid to react, "My name is Rock Lee, Naruto-kun! You seem like a very youthful person, running at this speed in the early morning! You are clearly basking in the springtime of youth!"

Naruto stared at him as if he was speaking an entirely different language, which he probably was because he didn't understand a word of what he said. Inside his mind, Kurama had kept his eyes shut tightly. He had already scarred his mind by seeing Lee. He did not want to go insane from seeing him in motion.

Naruto did the only thing he could without upsetting the boy. "Hey, Lee! How about we talk later? I'm in a bit of hurry!" Saying that, he sprinted ahead at full speed, leaving Lee to taste his dust. He felt bad about leaving him like that because there was a chance that that boy would be his future comrade, but he wanted to get used to his mannerisms slowly. The 'youth' coming from Lee terrified him.

Lee stared at the dust with wide eyes. Stars seemed to twinkle around him, "What youth! To be faster than me with my weights off! Gai-sensei will be so surprised when he hears of this!" Shouting this, he ran off in his own cloud of dust.

Naruto ran full sprint until he reached his house. Climbing up the stairs, he thought about what he had observed while talking to Lee. While the bandages covered almost whole of his forearms, the fingertips were exposed. And they were scratched and bruised, heavily. That indicated that Lee trained his ass off every day. He also sensed Lee's chakra, which was so low that someone would mistake him for a civilian. Which probably indicated that Lee was running on pure speed, without any chakra.

That meant Lee was a pure Taijutsu type fighter. _'The amount of hard work it must have taken to achieve that speed….. Lee has my utmost respect for his hard work'_, he thought with admiration. Kurama agreed, **'A genius of hard work, he truly is.'**

Taking a quick shower, he dressed in his clothes from yesterday and quickly ate a cup of instant ramen, justifying it as a good day and easily ignoring Kurama's exasperated shake of head and adjusted his hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder. Taking a final look in the mirror, he nodded to himself and left his apartment.

Hopping on the rooftops gave him a rare sense of thrill, which not many shinobi felt because of it being a usual for them. But many shinobi did not perform tricks on the rooftops as well. The flips and every sort of cartwheel he could think of were performed with the highest level of precision. His every landing, flip, roll was perfectly executed. The people below stared at him; some were the usual glares, while a few of them had expressions of awe. It was rare for them to see performing such tricks on rooftops with such expertise. Of course, Naruto was too lost in the thrill to notice.

Before long he had reached the academy. As he walked through the gates, a sense of apprehension gripped him. A familiar bad feeling from the last night gripped him again. With every step, the feeling seemed to intensify a little.

He shook his head a little, trying to shake the feeling off. Today will go well, he assured himself.

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen looked at the jonin assembled in his office. Each of them would be assigned a team of Genin. He had to choose carefully who received which team. The future of Konoha had to be handled extremely carefully.

He glanced at the jonin standing at the right hand side end of the line. Kakashi was sort of glaring at the old Hokage. Usually, he would be late to the meeting by a good three hours unless he was receiving a B-rank mission or higher, but the Hokage had threatened to burn his Icha Icha collection, even his hidden collection.

So he was forced to attend on time. But that did not prevent him from glaring at the Hokage.

Hiruzen distributed the first six teams and asked them to leave, before turning his attention to the more important teams.

"Team 7 would be led by you, Kakashi", he said, giving the jonin a nod. "Team 8's leader would be Kurenai. Since team 9 is still in circulation under Gai, team 10 would be led by Asuma. Kakashi, stay behind. I have to talk to you."

As the other jonin left, there was a noticeable change in Kakashi's posture. The lazy look was gone from his eye, replaced with seriousness. He stood straight with his hands behind his back and back straight, looking at the Hokage.

"What do you want from me, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen's seriousness of the topic was clear in his voice, "Kakashi, you have been given the most important team of all. Since Sasuke Uchiha is on this team, the council will probably force you to pay more attention to him, teach him the ways of Sharingan and all your jutsu. But you _will not _play any favorites. Is that understood?" His voice was like an army commander at the end.

Kakashi nodded, "Hai, Hokage-sama!"

Hiruzen then motioned for the ANBU to leave the room. Once the room was completely secure, he leaned forward on his desk, chin resting on his hands. He suddenly seemed to switch from a serious personality to a weary one.

"Kakashi, Naruto will be on this team as well." That single sentence seemed to bring out Kakashi's memories that he did not want to remember. Memories of his sensei, memories of how he failed to protect Naruto from the villagers.

'_I will not fail this time. You can count on me, Minato-sensei'_, he thought with resolution.

Hiruzen continued in his grave tone, "The council will probably tell you to ignore him as much as you can. But you will not do that to the only person who is connected to Minato, would you?"

Kakashi shook his head and spoke with steel in his voice, "No, Hokage-sama. I am astounded that you would even say that!"

Hiruzen however, was unfazed by the outburst. "I had to check, Kakashi. I'm sorry for saying that."

Kakashi nodded absentmindedly, his mind already making plans on how to deal with his new team. A thought occurred to him and he asked Hiruzen, "Is there anything I should know about my team?"

Hiruzen lent back in his seat, taking a deep breath and blowing the smoke out. "I could give you the files of your students, but observing firsthand is a better way. Won't you agree, Kakashi?"

Kakashi seemed to be in thought for a moment and then eye smiled. Perhaps, this time he will be able to correct his mistakes.

XXXXXXX

Entering the classroom, he saw that only half of those who had graduated were there. Eyes roaming, he spotted his friends Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Hinata sitting in their usual places. Shikamaru was dozing off as usual, Chouji was eating potato chips, Shino was examining his bugs and Hinata had turned red as soon as she saw him. She began poking her index fingers together, avoiding eye contact.

He also saw other kids who had graduated, playfully shoving each other, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. He was about to go to his usual seat in the back when he sensed a familiar chakra approaching. Turning to the door, he narrowed his eyes.

Sasuke Uchiha had entered the classroom. He looked very different from yesterday, wearing a navy-blue high collared short sleeved shirt and white shorts with holster tied on his right thigh. He also wore white arm warmers and hitai-ate tied on his forehead. He still had his usual air of arrogance and smugness around him. His posture carried confidence, which was clouded by arrogance.

His coal black eyes roamed the classroom until they settled on him. Naruto saw some anger seep into them, _'Still sore about yesterday, Sasuke?'_ he thought.

Sasuke marched up to him, his hands in his pockets, implying that he had no intention of attacking Naruto. He stopped a feet away from him and looked in his eyes with almost a burning intensity, his narrowed eyes showing that he would be keeping an eye on him from now on.

Naruto narrowed his own azure eyes in return, the cold intensity of them as cold as ice in response to Sasuke's fire. His eyes conveyed his response very clearly, _'Bring it, Sasuke.'_

They both were so lost in their glaring contest that Sasuke failed to notice one of the kids stumbling towards his back. He bumped into his back, shouting out a "Sorry!" before joining his friends back. He did not notice the consequences of his accidental bump.

Naruto's eyes had become as wide as saucers when Sasuke's lips crashed onto his own. He was so stunned from that that he just froze on his spot, as did Sasuke, looking into each other's eyes with disbelief. He did not even hear Kurama's loud belly laugh at his situation, so shocked he was having his first kiss stolen from Sasuke of all people. He was even more horrified at the amusement he was feeling. _'This feels __**so wrong**__, on __**so many **__levels'_, he thought with no small amount of panic.

Sasuke having thoughts along the same lines. He didn't imagine in his wildest dreams that his first kiss would be stolen by the dobe. Just what did he do to deserve this?! All he felt was disgust at feeling a boy's lips on his own. But the shock of the situation had frozen him to his place

This was the scene that Sasuke's most devoted fangirls, Sakura and Ino, along with other fangirls, were greeted to. They both blankly stared at them, not being able to form even full words "Wha-" "Ho-"

Naruto finally came to his senses and immediately stepped back from his spot, prompting Sasuke to do the same. Naruto rubbed his lips, slowly cleaning them off. Turning furious eyes on the dark haired boy, he hissed, "What the hell _kuso yaro_?! Just what gave you the indication that I liked you?! Unlike you, I happen to be an avid fan of the opposite sex!

Sasuke was taken aback by Naruto's rant for a moment, but was quick to recover. His voice turned downright menacing, not that Naruto was intimidated, "It was your fault, _dobe_!" He accused, rubbing his lips furiously.

Naruto was quick to snark back, "That's my line, teme! I'm not the one who suddenly decided to step forward and kiss me!" His first kiss went to Sasuke of all people! Oh, _the shame_…

Sasuke stormed to his seat and sat down, slipping back into his daily brooding routine. Naruto silently scoffed and turned away, _'Just what is so great about that guy?!'_

He was about to go to his regular seat when he felt it. It was not killing intent, but it felt like he had done something grievously wrong. Turning around, he almost went pale. All the girls of the class were looking like dogs ready to pounce and kill.

"Baka-Naruto! How dare you steal Sasuke-kun's first kiss like that?!" Sakura and Ino were quick to blame him, with the others following.

Kurama was _still _snickering in his mind and Naruto resisted the urge to sigh. Seeing the kunoichis' take a threatening step forward, he slid his left leg back, ready to flash step out of here if necessary. He had to find a way to-

"Everyone settle down!" the loud voice of Iruka-sensei was heard in the classroom, but the girls didn't seem to hear it, ganging up on Naruto, who didn't look nervous at all.

Iruka saw his favorite student being ganged up on by the kunoichis' and put a hand on his face in resignation. _'Now what did you do Naruto?'_

Feeling the need to save his little brother, he activated his _big head no jutsu_, "SETTLE DOWN, YOU BRATS!"

The effect was immediate. All the girls were seated so fast they almost looked like they were teleporting. However, Naruto was immune to Iruka's jutsu for a long time and so, he calmly walked up to his usual seat and sat down, looking out of the window with a bored look.

Iruka looked around the room and started his attendance.

"Aburame Shino." "Here."

"Akimichi Chouji." "Here sensei!"

The roll call continued but Naruto simply wasn't paying attention since his name was last anyways.

"Uzumaki Naruto." "Right here", he waved his hand lazily. His response sounded way cooler than any of his classmates and for this reason, it rattled Sasuke's fangirls.

"Baka!" Sakura stood up and pointed an accusing finger at him, "Stop trying to act cool like Sasuke-kun!"

"YEAH!" Her statement was supported by nearly all the fangirls in the room, except Hinata. Naruto, who was still looking outside, turned to face Sakura.

"Hm? Did you say something?" he asked in an absent-minded tone. Iruka suddenly wondered just where Naruto had met a one-eyed jonin who habitually said the same thing.

The girls shrieked and hurled various insults at him, which were easily ignored. Iruka coughed to get the class's attention and when he had it, he started speaking.

"You guys are now, officially, ninja of Konoha! But remember, you are simply a Genin. The road from here will only be uphill now. You will be now divided in groups of three, and a jonin sensei will be your teacher."

Everyone had different thoughts about this. Ino said to Sakura in a sly tone, "I wonder who will be on Sasuke-kun's team."

Sakura gave an annoyed glance to her, "Who knows?" However, inner Sakura shouted in her mind, _'Cha! I'm the one who will be on his team!'_

Sasuke thought with a small amount of irritation, _'A team of three? Che! They will only burden me and hold me back.'_

Iruka then began announcing the teams. It took a while but he finally announced Naruto's, "Uzumaki Naruto", Naruto payed close attention at that, "Haruno Sakura", causing a depressed cloud to appear on top of her, _'I'm on a team with Naruto? Why?'_

Naruto had a more expressive reaction. A purple cloud seemed to form over his head and he banged his head on the table. _'Fuck my life…'_, he groaned. Many felt sorry for the poor bastard, despite not being his friends. No one deserved Sakura as a teammate. Even Kurama was whispering comforting words such as they could kill her and bury the body.

"And Uchiha Sasuke", Iruka announced the last name. This time Sakura jumped in joy. Turning around_, _she flashed a superior smirk at the flabbergasted Ino, who was clenching her fists. Inner Sakura was shouting in joy, _'Cha! True love always prevails!'_

Shikamaru simple muttered, "Troublesome."

Trying to divert his mind from his recent depression, Naruto listened closely for the other teams. Team 8 was Hinata, Kiba and Shino. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. _'Taking in account that their special traits are not in fighting… If I'm not mistaken, this is a tracking and a back-up assault team."_

Team 10 was announced to be Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji. _'The legendary Ino-Shika-Cho trio is being formed again. Their father's were a legendary team themselves, after all. This team has two purposes that I can think of. A battle purpose and an information gathering, taking in account Ino's mind techniques, Shikamaru's binding techniques and Chouji as a heavy hitter. Not bad at all'_, he thought with a smile, impressed with jiji's choices of team members.

That thought process led him to his own team. A tiny frown appeared on his forehead, _'Sakura doesn't possess any specialties, except her high level of chakra control. Sasuke could be considered a specialist in ninjutsu due to his Sharingan, but that depends on his chakra capacity. He is an expert in Shurikenjutsu, which is to be expected considering who his brother was. His Taijutsu will grow by leaps too, once he awakens his Sharingan. My specialty would primarily be Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu, followed by Taijutsu and trap-making.'_

Naruto's frown disappeared as he realized something, _'So that's how it is! Our team is a primary, heavy-assault team. That old man really is something else'_, he smiled, shaking his head, impressed by the old Hokage.

Time passed and one by one, jonin sensei came to take their teams away. Team 8's sensei was a beautiful woman named Kurenai Yuhi and Team 10's sensei was a large man who looked like a bear and held strong resemblance to jiji. He introduced himself as Sarutobi Asuma and took his team away.

Many hours passed, but there was no sign of Team 7's sensei. Sasuke kept brooding the whole time, though he was starting to look irritated. Sakura looked close to exploding in anger. Naruto was calmly working on a new chakra suppressing seal that he could use without delay. He was also keeping his senses open, just in case he sensed their sensei.

Almost three hours of wait later, Naruto sensed a jonin level chakra signature heading their way. Sighing in relief, he sealed away his sealing supplies and got up, a revenge in mind for their tardy sensei. Walking up to the door, he made four hand signs and slapped his right palm on top of the door's ceiling. Snickering, he went back to his seat. That was a seal that had successfully worked on jiji. There was no reason it wouldn't work on their sensei.

Sakura and Sasuke were curiously watching Naruto. When Naruto applied his seal, they realized for the first time that Naruto was the tallest member of their team. Sakura asked him, "Naruto! What was that?!" in her usual tone of I'm-your-mother-Naruto.

Naruto gave her a blank gaze and said, "Something that you can't come close to understand, Sakura."

Sakura's temper flared and she moved to hit him out of habit, but the door to the classroom opened and all three Genin watched with shock as the man who opened it got drenched from head to toe in water.

Naruto smirked at that. That was a seal designed to activate when someone's chakra came in direct or indirect contact with it. He could store any element in it. Just because he was playing a prank, water was the best choice. Lightning or fire would be very painful. He turned towards the person who was most likely their jonin sensei.

XXXXXXX

Kakashi was lost in thought as he finally decided to go to the academy and collect his team. On one hand, there was Sasuke. The last member of the Uchiha clan that was still loyal to the village. Kakashi brought his hand up to the covered left eye. It was his late best friend's, Uchiha Obito's last gift to him before he died. He felt a sort of obligation to his friend to train the last bearer of the Sharingan.

On the other hand, there was Naruto. His sensei's son and Kakashi's only remaining tie to his late teacher. The person he had failed to protect from the village's hatred. The Sandaime had made it very clear that Kakashi has until chunin exams to increase the number of bonds he has in this village. If he doesn't have any bonds, he may very well leave the village and Konoha can't afford to lose its only jinchuriki.

Walking up to the classroom door, he was caught off guard when he was suddenly doused in water. Perplexed, he looked up, hoping to find a bucket, but saw nothing but a seal.

Eyes narrowed, he looked around the classroom. Sasuke was looking at him with doubt, _'Is this guy really a jonin?' _

Sakura looked apologetic as she bowed, "Sorry sensei, it is all Naruto's fault! I tried to stop him…"

Naruto was simply smirking at the jonin. With Kurama's help, he had identified the chakra signature as that of Dog, the ANBU who sometimes used to protect him. However, Naruto's I-know-something-you-don't smirk definitely put Kakashi on edge.

Kakashi was having his own thoughts about the three. Upon seeing Naruto's smirk, he concluded that Naruto most likely used a seal to play the prank. Turning to Sakura, he thought, _'Sakura tries to protect herself using excuses.'_

Eyes turning to Sasuke, he saw the boy turn his face back towards the window. _'Sasuke minds his own business. Doesn't seem to accept the other two as comrades.'_

He sighed internally, _'There is not a single shred of teamwork in this team at all.' _Outside, he gripped his chin in a mock thinking pose and said in his lazy voice, "Hmmmmm, how do I put this? My first impression of you guys, well, you're a bunch of idiots", he finished with an eye smile. He could literally see the cloud of depression over Sakura and Sasuke's head, but Naruto kept smirking in that annoying manner, not at all fazed by Kakashi's insult. Deciding to move on, he said, "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

Kakashi then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Startled by the sudden exit, Sasuke and Sakura scrambled and rushed to the roof, the latter scampering after the former. Naruto sighed; it was a good thing that he didn't have to hide his skills anymore. Grabbing the edge of the window, he swung his feet onto the wall and leisurely walked up it.

Kakashi was as usual, buried nose-deep in his porn when he felt it. Looking down curiously, he contained his surprise on seeing Naruto walk up to him. The boy was displaying a skill that not many people showed before graduating.

"Yo sensei!" Naruto waved with a smile. Kakashi had nothing to say so he waved back, "Yo!" It really made him feel like an idiot.

Naruto walked past him and sat down on the steps in front of Kakashi. Just as he sat down, Sasuke and Sakura burst through the door, eyes widening when they saw Naruto had already reached ahead of them and was sitting nonchalantly.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, _'How did the dobe reach ahead of me? Now that I think about it, I didn't see him following me and Sakura. So how DID he get here?'_

Sakura was in a similar state of surprise, but did not think much of it. She immediately sat down besides Sasuke, hearts in her eyes.

Kakashi closed his book with a snap and said in his ever lazy tone, "All right, why don't you introduce yourselves. You can start first, pinkerbell."

Sakura scowled at 'pinkerbell' and spoke up, "Why don't you go first and show us how it's done, sensei?"

Kakashi pointed a finger at himself, "Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have many likes and dislikes. My dreams are none of your business, …. and you are too young to hear my hobbies." He finished and glanced at Sakura, motioning to continue.

All the three genin sweat dropped, _'All we learned was his name."_

Sakura began speaking, "I am Haruno Sakura. I like…..", she glanced at Sasuke and blushed, "My hobbies are….", she blushed harder, "My dream is….", she _squealed _this team, making Naruto shake his head in disgust. Sasuke showed no reaction.

Kakashi asked, "Dislikes?"

Sakura was quick to scowl, "Ino-pig and baka-Naruto!"

Kakashi thought with a resigned sigh, _'I just HAD to get a fangirl.'_

He motioned Sasuke to begin, "You next, emo."

Sasuke scowled like Sakura at the nickname, but spoke, "Uchiha Sasuke. I have few likes and many dislikes. I have a dream, no…..ambition to kill a certain man and restore my clan."

Sakura was looking at Sasuke with hearts in her eyes and thinking, _'Sasuke-kun is so cool!' _Naruto was thinking, _'Doesn't he know that to restore his clan he needs girls and for girls he needs __**some**__ personality?'_

Kakashi had narrowed his eye a little, _'As I had thought…'_

He motioned for Naruto to begin, "You next, blondie."

Naruto was not at all offended at his nickname and spoke with a small smile, "The name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and spending time with Iruka-sensei. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook. My hobbies are training and experimenting with Fuinjutsu. My dream", his smile became a full blown grin, "is to become the strongest Hokage ever!"

Kakashi smiled slightly, _'His hobbies are a bit unusual, but he has certainly grown up in an interesting way.'_

He then said, "All right! All of you are unique and have your own ideals. We will start our duties from tomorrow! But there is something that the four of us have to do first." The deadpan in his voice was unmistakable.

Naruto tilted his head ever so slightly, "What would that be, sensei?"

"Survival exercise", Kakashi replied seriously.

"But we already did enough of it in the academy, sensei", Sakura said with a frown.

Kakashi chuckled, "This time, it's different because I'm your opponent."

"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked, a little irritated.

"It's your reaction you hear this; of the twenty seven graduates, only nine will be made genin. The rest will go back to the academy. As a matter of fact, the failure rate is over sixty-six percent!"

As Kakashi predicted, everyone's eyes went wide at that, Sakura going as far as to gaping. Kakashi laughed and said, "Told you you'd freak out!"

Naruto then deduced with narrowed eyes, "Then it is quite clear that the graduation test was just to select those who have the potential to become genin, isn't it?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, _'That was quite perceptive of him. Looks like you have a lot of secrets, Naruto-kun.' _He easily ignored Sakura shouting at Naruto for trying to act cool like Sasuke.

"Anyways, meet me on training ground 7, tomorrow morning five o' clock. Skip breakfast if you don't want to throw up." He vanished in a _leaf shunshin _after that.

For a while, none of them moved, thinking of the man's advice. Naruto got up first, walking over to the railing. He prepared to leap over, but stopped, turning around and asking, "Hey, you want to come and have lunch, get to know each other since we are teammates now?"

Sasuke snorted in disdain and walked away, Sakura following him like a puppy. She followed Sasuke's lead and shouted, "Yeah right, like anyone would want to eat with you, LOSER!" She then engaged in her daily habit of asking Sasuke for a date.

Kurama was smirking, **'She's the one to talk about weak.' **Naruto simply replied, _'It's not worth wasting our thoughts like that, Kurama. Besides, at least I tried. It's always the thought that counts."_

He leaped over the railing and sprinted to his usual training ground to do his training for the day. Perhaps he could even find Anko and persuade her to spar with him…

XXXXXXX

Naruto laid on his bed, hands tucked behind his bed and eyes up at the ceiling. Anko was tough as usual, and she was even kind enough to let him know that he had some openings in his fighting. By that, he meant she used those openings to leave nice, big bruises. He was not worried about that though, because he had already closed those openings. Right now, he was mentally conversing with Kurama.

'_How much do I let loose tomorrow, Kurama? The Hiraishin is not an option. That will only be revealed in the chunin exams and not before.'_

'**You can reveal three or four jutsus that you have, but not your red lightning. You can scare Kakashi-brat with your flash step though. A bit of fuinjutsu will do as well. Oh, and make sure to use the **_**great fireball. **_**I want to see the look on Uchiha's face.'**, Kurama replied after thinking for a bit, snickering in the end.

Naruto ignored that suggestion._ 'Which means lightning jutsus are out. I can go all out in Taijutsu. If I don't, Sasuke will be quick to call me out on that and I don't need any of that. Besides, it was clever of Kakashi-sensei to purposely mislead us into fighting on an empty stomach, don't you think?'_ he smirked.

Kurama smirked in return, **'Don't make the mistake of underestimating him, Naruto. Kakashi is a very strong shinobi, strong enough to be feared across all shinobi nations in the third great war. He is not lacking in the mental department at all.'**

Naruto mentally nodded, acknowledging Kurama's advice. Closing his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep. Tomorrow would be interesting…. again.

XXXXXXX

Glancing out of the apartment he lived in, Sasuke was thankful for the silence the night provided. _'I will pass the exercise myself. I won't allow those two to hold me back!' _he thought.

Frowning in thought, he absently tapped the window, _'The dobe has been acting very differently as of late. His sudden show of skills in the graduation test, his clear familiarity with seals…..could it be that he was hiding his skills? If so, then why? He has always craved attention, so why would he do something like hiding his skills and personality? Just who are you…..Naruto?'_

Sasuke had noticed that Naruto acted very different from his usual loud and idiotic personality in the graduation exam. He was calm and collected, more so than Sasuke usually was.

He was also understandably jealous of Naruto's newly-discovered skills. Sasuke had been training his ass off since the massacre in order to become strong enough. Strong enough to kill _him. _Not many people had the ability to see underneath, not even Sasuke, but he could tell that Naruto was hiding a lot of his abilities.

He would make Naruto tell him, because he deserved it more than anyone else, least of all the dobe.

XXXXXXX

Naruto's eyes opened at five o'clock, according to his body clock. _'This is the time by which I am supposed to be on the training field'_, he thought as he got up to do his morning rituals.

As he was brushing his teeth, he began thinking about Kakashi's behavior yesterday. _'Our sensei was late by over three hours to meet us and he didn't even look sorry about that. What's to say he won't do this today?'_, he thought as he wiped his mouth.

Going to the kitchen, he leisurely began preparing four omelets. As he cracked the eggs, he scoffed, _'Skip breakfast if we didn't want to throw up? He must be crazy if he thought that we would fight him on an empty stomach!' _He slid the omelets onto his plate and sat down on the dining table.

A quick prayer later, he was gorging them down. He couldn't think about strategies because he didn't know what the exercise would be. Finishing his meal, he walked over to the sink and washed his plate. _'Only Sakura would be stupid enough to skip the most important meal of the day! That girl is so thin a simple breeze would be enough to blow her away!' _he snickered.

He went to his room and took out the seal on which he was working on. He sat down on his table and worked on it until only half an hour was remaining till eight o' clock. He closed the scroll and began preparing for the day.

He dressed up and checked if he had all his supplies in his pouch and holster. Tying his hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder, he nodded to himself and exited his apartment after ensuring his trap-seals were in place.

He walked at a comfortable pace to the training grounds, eating two bananas and a backpack holding his lunch.

Reaching the training grounds, he had to hold his laugh at what he saw. Both his teammates were there, probably from five o' clock, and were looking as miserable. Well, as miserable as Sasuke could look. Sakura was sitting on the ground, probably regretting not eating breakfast.

As soon as she saw him, her face twisted into anger and she got up, yelling. "Naruto! You are late!"

Naruto looked around and sure enough, Kakashi wasn't here. Turning back to Sakura, he shrugged, "I don't how I can be late if sensei isn't even here, Sakura."

Sakura opened her mouth to yell more, but couldn't refute his statement. Her stomach decided to rumble at that moment, followed shortly by Sasuke's. Naruto raised a disbelieving eyebrow, _'They really are that stupid?!'_

He spoke with disbelief, "You two didn't eat breakfast?!"

The mentioned two shook their head, but Sakura yelled again, "Sensei told us not to eat breakfast, baka! Why did YOU eat it?!"

Naruto glared at her, causing her to flinch, "I'm standing right here, Sakura. There's no need to yell. As for eating breakfast", he spoke as if speaking to four year old's, "It _is _the most important meal of the day, you know."

Sakura's temper got the better of her and she moved to hit Naruto. But Naruto decided to teach her a lesson and caught her fist easily, his cold eyes freezing her in her place.

"I suggest you stop doing that. Otherwise, I'll do more than just catch your fist next time", his voice was a whisper, but it was cold as ice, letting her know he was dead serious. He even enforced his threat with a little KI, making her sweat.

Sasuke had been watching the both of them and had to admit that their interactions were amusing. However, that amusement ended when he heard Naruto's threat. He was surprised at how serious and deadly his teammate could sound. Naruto released Sakura's fist and walked up to him, asking, "Why didn't you eat breakfast, emo?"

Sasuke glared at him, refusing to answer. Naruto shrugged and walked up to the posts, setting his backpack on top of one of them. He then sat down, legs crossed and eyes closed, waiting for their sensei to show up.

Turns out Kakashi was even more late than yesterday. He showed up at ten minutes to eleven, "Hi fellows. Good morning." He was sounding even more lazier than yesterday, if that was possible.

Sakura pointed at him accusingly at him, "You're late!"

Kakashi's eye curved up in a sort of smile, "Well, you see, a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take a long cut to avoid bad luck."

"Liar!" Sakura shouted. Naruto sweat dropped, _'Tardiness __**and**__ lame excuses? Just what's wrong with this guy?'_

The silence became awkward and Kakashi coughed to break it, "Well, let's begin."

He placed his backpack down and pulled out an alarm clock, which he set for twelve o' clock. He put it on one of the posts. He then took out two tied bells, "Your task is to take theses bells from me before the alarm rings. Those who don't get the bells get no lunch. Not only that, I will tie you to the posts and eat lunch in front of you."

Sakura's hungry, devastated face was exactly what he wanted. Sasuke tried to hide his hunger, but his stomach betrayed him. Only Naruto looked calm among them. "Naruto, why did you eat breakfast when I told you not to?"

Sakura smiled, expecting Naruto to get punished, but Naruto simply replied, "You only suggested not to, sensei. You never said it as an order. Also, I'm not an idiot who forgets to eat the most important meal of the day."

Sasuke and Sakura glared at him for implying they were idiots, while Kakashi just 'hmmm'ed. _'He is turning out to be very interesting. Maybe he would figure out the purpose of this test as well?' _he wondered.

"You only have to get one bell. Since there are only two, one of you will get tied to the stump. The one who doesn't get a bell fails and goes back to the academy", he said, smirking at the horror on their faces. He continued, "If you don't come at me with the intent to kill, you will fail. Any questions?"

Sakura spoke up, a confused look on her face, "But sensei, what if you get hurt?" Naruto snorted at that. Kakashi was a freaking jonin! They would be hard pressed just to harm a hair on him!

Kakashi almost laughed out loud but managed to reign it in, "Don't worry, I won't. Alright…..begin!"

The three of them jumped out of sight. Kakashi then tied the bells to him and took out his 'Icha Icha' book. _'They've hidden well. A shinobi should be able to hide from his enemies. Now to wait for one of them to attack'_, Kakashi thought as he kept his eyes on the book.

XXXXXXX

'_He's got to be kidding! I've only ever seen four-man cells! There's no cell with only two genin and a jonin. There's a different purpose to this test'_, Naruto furiously thought.

His eyes then widened, _'He knows we won't be able to get the bells single-handedly. He wants us to work together! That is the purpose of this test!'_

He smirked in victory, but that smirk turned into a frown, _'Those two will never work with me. Maybe I can convince them….after I get beat up from sensei.'_

With that, he released his seals and _shunpoed _from his spot.

Kakashi looked up in surprise as Naruto seemedto shimmer before him, landing in a crouch. _'What was that? He appeared really fast! His speed was too high for a genin!'_

"Rather stupid of you to come at me head on, isn't it?"

"I don't see what's stupid about testing your opponent", Naruto replied, eyes narrowed.

Kakashi had to hold back the memories from seeing those eyes. _So much like sensei….._

He was almost caught off-guard when Naruto disappeared, reappearing in front of him, leg extended in a kick. _'That was easily low jonin-level speed! And how the hell does he move that fast?!' _he frantically thought as he blocked the kick. He winced, _'He hits hard as well.'_

Kakashi was forced to put away his book as Naruto's movements were too fast. But Kakashi wasn't a jonin for nothing. He easily began countering Naruto's attacks, mentally admiring his fighting style.

'_His movements are fast, not giving the opposition enough time to think. The strength in his attacks might even reach mid-chunin level. Not many openings to exploit too. His attacks are also quite unorthodox. Very interesting style, like he almost seems to know where the attacks are coming from'_, he applauded mentally as he ducked and blocked a three roundhouse-kick combo that he knew wasn't a part of any style he knew, and he knew a lot of them.

"You're good kid, but not good enough!" he grunted as he used the momentum of the spin kick coming towards his face. He caught Naruto by the ankle and threw him into the pond. He missed Naruto's smirk as he entered the water.

'_He threw me into the water! Perfect!'_, Naruto thought as he made a half ram seal with his left hand and slowly released his breath. The air surrounded his body like a sort of bubble. He floated up until he was just underneath the surface. He then threw two shuriken at the jonin.

Kakashi didn't even need to look to catch them. But he was unprepared for what came next.

'_Suiton: Suikusari no jutsu!' _(Water style: Water chain jutsu). Five chains of water erupted from the water and wrapped around him with surprising speed. Requiring only one seal due to his high water affinity, this jutsu was very easy to use.

'_Suiton ninjutsu?! How does he know that?!' _shock filled his whole being. Naruto jumped out, spinning once mid-air to increase the momentum behind his punch, which only connected with a log. _'Kawarimi huh?'_

Kakashi walked out from behind a tree hundred feet away, eye smiling. "Nice try. You are definitely chunin material Naruto, but you will have to try harder to get the bell."

Naruto made three hand seals, _'Fuuton: Toppa!' _(Wind style: Breakthrough)A strong gust of wind blew towards Kakashi, who simply leapt to the side to avoid it. _'Wind manipulation?! How does Naruto know all these jutsus?!'_

"A strong jutsu, but useless if I can avoid it", Kakashi rebuked. His eyebrow rose up in confusion when Naruto threw a single kunai at him. "Is that supposed to hit me?" he lazily asked as he just tilted his head to avoid it.

He was not prepared for Naruto to appear behind him, replacing himself with the thrown kunai. Kakashi turned around, but it was too late. "Wha-" Naruto slashed at the bells with a kunai in his right hand, eyes widening in surprise when one of them separated. _'Now's the chance!' _he allowed his body to spin clockwise, his left hand grabbing the separated bell and right foot kicking out to Kakashi, who blocked it with his hands.

But Naruto simply used the force of the kick to jump back onto a tree, using _shunpo _to retreat into the woods.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke and Sakura were shell shocked. They were not expecting Naruto's taijutsu to be this good. He was matching their sensei strike for strike, even adding his own attacks. The speed of his movements was something not even Sasuke could match. His form of movement was also noticed by the duo, inducing jaw dropping shock. The show of ninjutsu and snatch of a bell was the last straw for Sasuke.

'_How does dobe know a style such as that? How did he achieve that level of speed? How does he know those jutsu?! I should be the one to have those, not him!' _he raged in his mind, fists clenched.

Sakura had still not recovered from the shock that was Naruto. _'Naruto was never this good at the academy. How did e manage to get a bell?' _It was then her fangirlish ways took over, _'If Naruto can get a bell, then Sasuke-kun can definitely do it!'_ Not once did she think about herself.

Kakashi stood in shock over what happened. An academy graduate, who was said to be the dead last of his class, not only managed to catch him off guard, but also managed to get a bell. Not to mention the said dead last knew fuuton and suiton ninjutsu, high-chunin level taijutsu with low jonin-level speeds. He, Hatake Kakashi, Copy ninja, caught off guard by a simple _kawarimi_.

Naruto himself was shocked at his success. Even he didn't expect to get a bell this way. Then again, Kakashi most probably _wouldn't _expect an academy graduate to pull of a seal less _kawarimi_.

'_That was nothing more than a stroke of luck. In a straight fight, I would be dead already. But since when do shinobi fight fair?'_, he thought, the excitement slowly leaving him, allowing cognitive thoughts to take place.

'_I should probably seek out Sasuke and Sakura, maybe convince them to work together. But my plan was to get beat up, not to get a bell. Sasuke would never listen to me now, which by extension, also includes Sakura. Dammit, dammit, dammit!' _he cursed.

'**It never hurts to try. The worst that will happen is that you will fail to convince them'**, Kurama encouraged him. Naruto thought about it a bit and reluctantly agreed with him. He easily sensed the chakras of the two and cursed when he felt that Sasuke was furious by the agitation of his chakra. He quickly made his waytowards him, hoping he wouldn't be too late.

XXXXXXX

He was too late. Sasuke was already furious at Naruto's achievement and when Naruto tried to convince him, he harshly shot his proposal to work together down and went to confront Kakashi alone.

Long story short, he got his ass handed to him and got himself buried head deep into the ground. On the bright side, Naruto successfully copied the _Doton_ jutsu Kakashi used to bury Sasuke. He sensed Kakashi casting a genjutsu on Sakura, who easily succumbed to it. He sent twenty shadow clones to fight Kakashi and defend Sakura, but the time was already up.

Sakura hung her head in shame as she was the one tied to the post while Naruto and Sasuke sat beside her. Sasuke was angrily glaring at Naruto, who was watching his sensei.

Kakashi looked at the kids, shaking his head in disappointment, "Only Naruto managed to get a bell. But that doesn't mean that you passed Naruto. You all failed to grasp the real purpose of this test!"

"Teamwork."

The response came from Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura looked away from him, in anger and shame. Naruto tried to convince them to work together, but they didn't listen to him, because who did?

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "A little late to realize, don't you think?"

Naruto gestured towards his teammates, "They knew it. You can ask them that I tried to convince them to work together. But I already knew from the start that I would be shot down."

Kakashi thought, _'He figured it out, and even tried to execute it, but knew he would be shot down. Sorry Naruto, but this group fails.'_

Naruto's voice interrupted him, "Besides, teamwork is something that is established in the long run, sensei. You can't expect it out of people who have never worked together!"

Kakashi nodded, "Point, but it is also born out of necessity, which was this case. Unfortunately, you all failed to act on it."

Silence reigned for a while as Kakashi let them think about it. Then he spoke, "I'll give you all one more chance after an hour. If you fail even then, quit being shinobi!" he harshly told them. "The world of shinobi is not a playground for children! Be ready, and no one feeds Sakura lunch!"

He walked away after that, presumably to run an errand. Naruto easily sensed him hiding behind a tree, even though he was suppressing his chakra. He shook his head and turned to offer his lunch to Sakura, who blinked in surprise.

"Naruto, sensei said-" "It's fine. I don't sense him anyways", Sasuke said as he too, offered Sakura his lunch. She gratefully nodded at him and ate, ignoring Naruto completely.

Naruto shook his head and was about to dig in when he felt a sudden surge of chakra. Kakashi appeared before them, furious as hell. "I told you not to feed her. Are you ready to face the consequences?" The clouds suddenly seemed to gather and sounds of thunder could be heard.

Sasuke spoke up, surprising Naruto, "We are a team, aren't we? We will face the consequences together!"

"Is that your choice?" Kakashi asked, still radiating fury.

The group nodded as one, resolution and determination in their eyes. Like a switch, Kakashi changed personalities, "You pass!" he eye smiled at them.

Naruto still stayed wary, "Is that it?"

Eye smile disappearing, Kakashi said in a serious tone, "Yeah. I wanted to be sure you three would act as one. My best friend always used to say, _Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum_. I wanted you all to accept each other as comrades. This is actually the first group I have passed. The previous ones were blockheads who couldn't get it."

He gave them an eye smile and a thumbs up, "Team 7 will start its missions from tomorrow!"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Author's note: Alright people! Thanks for the reviews and follows! I can't put into words how pleased I am that people are like, **_**begging**_**, for updates. Brebre74874, your request is sort of impossible as I don't have a lot of free time. CW, perhaps I will do that somewhere down the line, but not now. Elder Sibling, sorry to let you down. Zubhanwc3, I will get to that once I am past chunin exams. Arc09 and Lord Halcyon, thank you for your words. Onto the story! **

**P. S: There will be no update for next week as I have my exams to concentrate on. The week after that, updates will resume as usual.**

"Welcome to the wonderful world of D-ranks."

Naruto was starting to hate those words by now. It had been two weeks since the bell test had taken place. Kakashi had kept to his promise and started taking missions for the team the day after.

Only Naruto, and by extension his teammates, refused to believe whatever they were doing were missions.

Menial tasks such as fixing fences, taking dogs out for walks, manual labor on farms…Naruto was confused as hell as to how these tasks could be labeled in the same category as missions. He was sure Sasuke and Sakura were too.

Speaking of which, Sasuke had started asking questions about how Naruto knew wind and water ninjutsu, his taijutsu style. He even had the nerve to demand from him all the jutsu he knew. Naruto had told him in no uncertain terms that unless Sasuke was willing to share jutsu from his own repertoire, Naruto had no intention of telling him what he wanted to know.

Of course, Sasuke refused to share any jutsu of his, believing that they were Uchiha clan jutsu and as such, no one besides him could know. Naruto had scoffed at that, but Kurama had straight out burst laughing. The great beast had told him he knew at least twenty people who could perform the _great fireball_, only two of which were Uchiha.

Naruto had smartly countered that argument by toeing the line that was Uchiha Sasuke's pride. He had condescendingly asked if the great Uchiha library was not enough for him. Sasuke did not want to admit that he could not access it without his sharingan and he honestly believed all jutsus available outside were weak and so, did not bother to learn them.

He stopped bugging Naruto after that, much to the blonde's relief. However, Sakura had started bugging him on Sasuke's behalf to get him to hand over the jutsus, saying that a loser like him does not deserve them. Naruto was quick in shutting her up, turning her own argument against her.

He had smartly questioned her if she was implying he was weak. Sakura, unaware of what she was putting her foot into, scoffed and replied that she was not implying, she _knew _he was weak. After that, everything went smooth like butter.

Naruto replied that if he was weak, then by extension, the jutsu he used were also weak. And Sasuke wouldn't love Sakura if she handed him weak jutsus, right?

Sakura had adopted a worried frown at his question and seemed to come to the conclusion that he was right. She did not once question why Naruto accepted himself as weak, which was opposite of what he had displayed in the bell test. Regardless, after mocking him some more, she went back to Sasuke, who ignored her as usual.

Kakashi-sensei was also onto him, but he was a lot more cautious in his approach. He subtly framed his statements such that Naruto would have difficulty in avoiding the correct answer. But Naruto knew that if it got out he had received training from an early age, Sasuke might throw one of his tantrums, which would then result in the civilian council removing him from the ninja program.

No _thank you_.

Naruto, while subtle talking was not one of his strengths, decided that he would avoid talking to Kakashi outside of missions and training.

Speaking of training, Naruto tried out the taijutsu simulation his father left for him. Needless to say, he was excited as hell when he fought the first level. And he was more than surprised at how difficult it was. He may have reached a level in his resistance seals that actually permits him to try all seven levels, but only the first level's victory came at the cost of some _very impressive _bruises. It taught Naruto that his taijutsu, while very good, was not good enough. He increased the resistance on his body, believing if he was faster, he would be better

He tried the second level after a week and was pleased to note that the number of bruises he got were significantly less. A sign of improvement; he also learned a water and a lightning jutsu as well. A very interesting thing he learned about his red lightning was that it was very versatile and easy to use. He could mold it into anything with ease, almost like it was an extension of his body.

But enough of that. Right now, they were on a mission. A mission Naruto had _absolutely _no problem in failing.

The mission to capture Tora, the feudal lord's wife's cat.

It was a mission that always managed to give Naruto goosebumps. He could swear on his ramen that the old man was a sadist. He could see the joy at their pain in his eyes every time the mission to capture the blasted cat was handed out.

So far they had already caught it five times. This was the sixth. And he was ready to tear his hair out.

"This is Kakashi, everyone copy?"

"Sakura here, copy."

"Sasuke here, copy."

"Naruto here, copy."

"Does everyone have eyes on target?"

Naruto responded, "I have clear eyes on target. Just waiting for the go."

"Alright, go!"

A flash step later and Naruto had Tora secured in his arms. She was thrashing around, but he could care less. "Got him, Kakashi-sensei!" Turning to the cat, he pressed to fingers onto the cat's forehead and removed them, revealing a kanji for _'sleep'_. Tora fell asleep instantly.

His teammates landed beside him, irritated expressions on their face which Kakashi expertly ignored and asked Naruto through radio, "Does it have the red ribbon on the right ear?"

Surprisingly, it was Sakura who replied, "Yes, red ribbon is there! Can we go now?!" Naruto couldn't fault her for being so infuriated. He looked over to Sasuke and saw him return to his normal brooding expression, but his clenched fists told otherwise.

Kakashi landed beside his team, eye scrunched up in that annoying eye smile of his. "Well done team 7! Capturing Tora is a success!" Naruto quietly mumbled, "Again." He seriously wanted to start doing actual missions.

XXXXXXX

After they returned to the mission hall, Kakashi asked for another D-ranked mission, much to his team's protests.

The Sandaime scrolled through the missions, "Hm, let's see….. There is a fence that needs painting, weeding to be done, dogs to be walked-"

"How about a real mission this time, jiji? Like a C-rank?" he asked the Hokage, tired of doing the chores these people called 'missions'.

Sakura was quick to scold Naruto, "Naruto! Show respect to Hokage-sama!" Surprisingly, she didn't try to hit him. Must have scared her back there, he mused.

"Naruto!" Iruka spoke with a frown, "You can't demand missions like that! Genin teams have to do D-rank missions for two to three months before they get qualified for C-ranks! And even then their jonin sensei-"

Hiruzen cut Iruka off with a gentle chuckle, "It's ok, Sakura-chan. He has called me that ever since he was little."

Sakura's eyes widened a bit in surprise as did Sasuke's. They didn't know Naruto was so close to the Hokage to the extent of calling the man a grandfather figure.

Hiruzen turned towards Kakashi, "Kakashi, do you think your team is ready for a C-rank mission?"

Kakashi thought about it a bit. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura's teamwork had progressed at a slow rate, but he can say that their teamwork had become decent. One development worth mentioning was that Sasuke now held a one sided rivalry with Naruto. With Naruto starting to hide less of his abilities, it became even more clearer that he had Sasuke outmatched in ninjutsu because of his wider repertoire of jutsus, not to mention that Naruto had shown he could use three elements and had monstrous chakra reserves due to being a jinchuriki and an Uzumaki, easily dwarfing Sasuke's reserves. Fuinjutsu already gave Naruto an edge that Kakashi knew Sasuke would not be able to match.

The jonin suspected Naruto was hiding a lot more, but didn't call him out on it. He kept a close eye on Naruto during the D-ranks, but Naruto held his edge. He didn't give the two boys any chance to spar, knowing that because of Sasuke's inability to accept someone, especially Naruto, was stronger than him would cause the spar to escalate into something much serious. Kakashi was not dumb enough to take that chance.

Anyway, Naruto had unintentionally become Sasuke's reason to get stronger. Kakashi reasoned that Sasuke held his brother, Itachi, in a much higher position than Naruto and wanted to become stronger than Naruto, so he could finally kill _him_. Another positive development was that Sasuke didn't completely alienate himself from his teammates. He held a strange… companionship with Naruto, deeming the boy tolerable. Maybe it was because Naruto had metamorphically extended a hand of friendship towards the lone Uchiha by displaying a bit of what he was capable of, and Sasuke respected those who had power.

Taking all of this into consideration, Kakashi finally spoke, "Hai, I believe they are ready, Hokage-sama."

All three genin had different reactions to this. Sakura sighed in relief, not wanting to do D-ranks anymore. Naruto pumped his fist, exclaiming "Yes! Finally!" Even Sasuke smirked a bit. He felt doing D-ranks held him back from getting stronger. Maybe getting some real world experience like encountering bandits and foreign shinobi would make him stronger, he mused.

Hiruzen nodded and browsed through the pile in front of him, "Let's see. Hmm…. Found it. Simple escort and protection mission to wave country. Your client is a bridge builder named Tazuna who wants you to protect him until he completes building his bridge in wave."

Kakashi took the scroll, "Mission accepted, Hokage-sama."

Hokage then turned to Iruka, "Send Tazuna inside."

Iruka nodded and went out of the room, returning two minutes later with an old man wearing a straw hat and holding a bottle which obviously contained alcohol. Naruto wrinkled his nose, the odor was not pleasant at all.

Tazuna looked at the team of genin and slurred, "These are the brats that are supposed to protect me? I paid for real ninja protection!"

"Funny of you to say that, considering you didn't even notice me move", a voice came from behind him. Tazuna whipped around with wide eyes, but couldn't spot the owner of the voice.

"Over here, you drunkard", the same voice drawled, making the man whip around again, eyes locking onto a mop of blonde hair. Intense blue eyes stared back at him, silently mocking him and his earlier statement.

Kakashi intervened before Naruto could scare Tazuna even more, "Naruto, please don't scare the client", he reprimanded in his usual lazy voice, which didn't sound like a reprimand at all.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're no fun at all", Naruto sighed despondently, walking back to his place beside Sasuke.

Kakashi assured the builder, "You have nothing to be afraid of, Tazuna-san. My genin are among some of the best upcoming ninjas of this village. We can easily take care of a few bandits."

Instead of making the man relax, Tazuna tensed up a bit at the word 'Bandits'. Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit at that. Protection from a jonin would be enough to make anyone relax, so Tazuna tensing up didn't make sense.

'**He's hiding, or more probably, withholding some information, Naruto. Be on your guard'**, Kurama advised. He too, noticed Tazuna's tensing up.

'_Will do, Kurama'_, Naruto replied before turning to Kakashi, excitement on his face. "When are we leaving, Kakashi-sensei?" he eagerly asked.

"We will leave tomorrow morning at seven", he answered. He then lazily waved them away, "That's all for today. Take full rest for tomorrow."

The genin dispersed to do their own thing for the remainder of the day. Naruto and Sasuke went separate ways to do their own training while Sakura headed home.

XXXXXXX

Naruto headed to the abandoned Senju compound, more specifically the Nidaime's library. He figured that this C-rank might take them two to three weeks, so he might as well collect two jutsu scrolls to learn in the meantime. Browsing he picked up a Suiton and a Fuuton scroll.

Suiton: Suidanha (Water style: Water severing wave) was a powerful A-rank jutsu. After infusing chakra in your stomach and then converting it to water, the user spit the water out in highly pressurized, razor sharp jets of water, sharp enough to cleanly cut through rock and barks of thick trees if used perfectly.

Naruto was pleased to note that like all Suiton jutsus he had learned from the library until now, this one had two types of learning as well. One for a normal water user, another for a user who had extremely high affinity like Tobirama, who could perform the most complex water techniques with only one hand seal.

Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu (Wind style: Wind torpedo technique). A powerful C-rank jutsu that Tobirama himself created keeping explosive tags in mind. _'I'm starting to think our esteemed Nidaime was a man obsessed with explosives'_, he thought as he read on how to perform the jutsu.

After infusing wind chakra in your lungs, it is expelled as a highly explosive ball of wind, near invisible. Upon contact, it will explode with the force of two standard explosive tags. It required three hand seals of Ox-Horse-Snake.

"Should be enough to last this mission", he mused as he exited the library. Extending his senses, he checked if anyone was nearby. Finding no one, he shrugged and simply flashed into his apartment.

He had no idea what he was in for in this mission.

**Author's note: Hey readers! Sorry for missing my weekly update. You see, I was in middle of a medical crisis and needed immediate attention. Axodus, thank you for your concern. I am quite alright now. Girrr, please calm down. For the guest who said I would cringe at my own story when reading it in the future, I have only one thing to say. We fanfic writers are working hard to deliver, so unless you have written a story that has more followers than mine or any other writer on the website, you have no right to call my story a dump. And fuck you, by the way.**

**That's all, and updates will resume as usual.**

**P.S: Sorry for the short update.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**Author's note: All right, guys! Thank you so much for leaving all those reviews, which brings me to the first order of business! I have noticed and am glad that I did, the problem of civilians. To be honest, I wanted to test that cliché to see what kind of response I would get. Otsutsuki no yami and The-Funeral-Pyre, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Rest assured, this chapter will see the end of the dratted council. Mobs have already passed and won't happen anymore. Also, Naruto is a seal master. It stands to reason he would seal his apartment. Onto the story!**

Naruto woke up at his usual time of five o' clock, refreshed and recovered from yesterday's training. He got up from his bed, rubbing his eyes a bit. Walking to the bathroom, he finished his morning rituals and almost put on his regular running clothes, before remembering that he had a C-rank mission today.

He shook his head and just put on a lower and shoes. He opened the door to his balcony and breathed the fresh, cool morning air. He shivered once as the air hit his bare upper body, but soon adjusted to it. He flipped onto the roof and began a series of stretches to simply warm his body up. _'Wouldn't want to exert too much today before the mission'_, he thought as he stretched every part of his body. With that being the last thought, he emptied his mind and enjoyed the silence that the village experienced in the early mornings before it began its daily chaos.

After one hour, he had sufficiently warmed up his body and decided to have breakfast before heading to the gates. Making a half ram seal, a shadow clone popped into existence, already knowing to make breakfast. It flipped his way into the apartment and into the kitchen while Naruto sat there, simply taking in the peace for a few more minutes.

'_Kurama, in your ridiculously long life, have you ever taken time to breathe and admire the sunrise?'_

'**What brought this on, brat?'** Kurama's voice was a bit laden with sleep, signifying that he was napping as usual.

Naruto shrugged, _'Just asking.'_

'**Despite what people tend to think about me, I don't rampage all the time, you know. Even I take time to appreciate the simply joys of nature'**, he grumbled.

Naruto lifted an eyebrow, _'Wow, people really don't understand you as well as they think they do.'_

Kurama nodded mentally before shooing him away, **'Now go away, let the me rest in peace'**, he said, cutting off their conversation.

Naruto shook his head, _'He must have a passionate hobby of sleeping which he adheres to like anything.'_

He flipped himself back into his apartment, walking to his bathroom to freshen up. Ten minutes later, he was eating four scrambled eggs, all the while mentally compiling a list of what he should take with him. He created a shadow clone to clean up while he got ready.

He dressed up as usual and sealed up whatever supplies he would need in a large sealing scroll which he brought from the Higurashi weapons shop. The folks over there didn't up the prices for him. He was considering selling his ideas for a modified explosive tag over there in exchange for a discount on his future purchases and a bit of secrecy. After all, he also needed _those _in the future.

After double checking everything, he picked up his scroll slung it around him and walked out of his apartment. He activated the trap seals which he had designed himself. While he knew no one had any reason to come to his apartment, he couldn't help but create them, just to test himself. With that, he flashed the _Hiraishin _seal on top of the gates of Konoha.

XXXXXXX

Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke each had different thoughts concerning this mission. Kakashi didn't lose his sleep over it, figuring this would be a normal C-rank mission. Truthfully, he didn't think his team was ready to take on a C-rank. While Naruto and Sasuke had established a sort of friendship, this would be the first time their co-ordination would be tested.

Naruto was clearly skilled. His taijutsu was between mi-chunin to high-chunin level, but Kakashi suspected Naruto had some sort of seal, probably weight or resistance, on his body to increase his overall speed and strength. Naruto hid it well, but the occasional stumble in places where there was no reason to stumble gave him the idea of speed and strength increasing seals.

Naruto already had an effective arsenal of jutsus at his disposal. Kakashi deduced that Naruto must have very high chakra control to perform the jutsus that he did. While he only witnessed them in the bell test, he saw enough to put together that Naruto had no problem in ninjutsu. He also knew that he didn't have to worry about Naruto succumbing to chakra exhaustion, considering his status as jinchuriki of the kyuubi and an Uzumaki.

Fuinjutsu was a branch of the ninja arts that not many chose to explore, considering how complex and vast it was. However, Naruto had already shown his proficiency with seals. It wasn't hard to believe that Naruto would use seals, knowing who his parents were.

Sasuke was also skilled, but outclassed by Naruto. The boy had a loner personality, but had mellowed a bit in the last two months. Kakashi knew that the credit went to Naruto, who knew exactly how to push the Uchiha's buttons and had somehow created a bond of friendship between them.

The boy's taijutsu was good, but he could only go so far without the sharingan. Kakashi didn't worry about it, knowing that once Sasuke awakened it, he would close the gap between him and Naruto.

While the sharingan was an excellent tool to use for ninjutsu, it really depended on the size of the person's chakra reserves. And he didn't even need to speak about Sasuke's proficiency in using ninja tools.

Sakura was perhaps the only problem in team seven. Her actions leaned more towards an obsessed fangirl than a kunoichi focused on her career. She would always be asking Sasuke out for dates, leading Kakashi to consider if the girl only became kunoichi to get close to Sasuke. She wasn't physically strong, did not know any useful jutsu, proficiency with ninja tools was mediocre at best and tried to make others feel bad to make herself feel better, as was the case with her and Naruto. Thankfully, Naruto seemed to be well versed in the art of ignoring Sakura.

The only good thing about her was that she had excellent chakra control and intelligence, but that was of no use to her if she couldn't find a way to apply it on the battlefield.

He had only taken this C-rank to show his team that the ninja world wasn't as easy and forgiving as it seemed. They hadn't even experienced their first kills, though that could change if they came across bandits.

Sasuke had his normal, neutral expression on his face as he walked to the gates for his mission. His thoughts, however, were anything but neutral.

Sasuke couldn't understand Uzumaki Naruto, no matter how he tried. Every time he thought he had figured Naruto out, the blonde would seemingly switch angles and leave Sasuke confused again. At first glance, he gave off the impression of a clown, but that quickly changed on the day of the graduation exam. Since then, Sasuke kept a close eye on Naruto.

On the day of the bell test, Sasuke had been outraged at the skill that was displayed by the blonde. He suspected Naruto's taijutsu was at par, if not greater than his own. But to engage in a spar with a jonin, attacking and countering all attacks with a precision and fluidity Sasuke did not possess, was enough to ignite jealousy inside Sasuke.

His ninjutsu was something Sasuke did not expect, but didn't exactly know why he was upset about it. So he didn't think much about it.

Sasuke had somewhat expected Fuinjutsu and immense chakra reserves from Naruto, having read up on the Uzumaki clan and their prowess in the art. He could accept that, but that was not the most surprising thing that happened to him.

He had thought that Naruto would hold a grudge against him for how Sasuke treated him at the academy, but instead of giving him the same treatment, Naruto had extended a hand of friendship towards him, telling him that he was willing to put aside the differences between them in order to work together.

At first, Sasuke had refused, firm on his belief that he will be only held back. But Naruto persisted, to the point that Sasuke agreed if only to get him to shut up. And it was….alright, to work with him.

Naruto invited him to occasionally have ramen with him at Ichiraku's. Sasuke had accepted every time, desperate to piece together the puzzle of Naruto. They usually talked about their training schedules; more like Sasuke wanted to know how Naruto became so strong. They talked about their childhoods, surprising Sasuke just how similar they were. Sometimes, they just complained about Sakura, with Naruto rambling and Sasuke pitching in every five minutes. And the weird thing about these meetings…..it became easier to talk to him every time.

Sasuke was now pretty sure that he did not consider Naruto as a weakling to be dismissed at the first glance, but rather as a scale to measure himself against. He respected him; he wanted to become as strong as Naruto, in hopes that he would surpass him and finally become powerful enough to kill his brother. He had accepted Naruto as a comrade…for now.

Sakura happily made her way to the gates, Sasuke being the main thought on her mind. She was sad how Sasuke always denied her a date, but kept her spirits high, just in case he decided to accept the next time. But in the past two months she had spent with her team, she was witness to some rather troubling developments.

The first was that she was forced to accept that she could not use Naruto as a step to boost her confidence anymore. He had made it very clear that he would not tolerate her picking on him anymore. That made her realize with a small amount of shame, that she had very unnecessarily picked on Naruto, who had no hand in anything that upset her.

The second was that Naruto was _strong_. Easily stronger than Sasuke, and she was not just talking about chakra reserves. She knew about the Uzumaki clan; Naruto was the physically capable of them all, proven when he could physically exert even more than Sasuke. He would take much longer than her and Sasuke to get tired and recover much more quickly than both of them.

The third and hardest to accept was that Naruto and Sasuke came from very similar backgrounds. She refused to believe that at first, going so far as to call him an orphan and could never match Sasuke. She was shocked though, when Sasuke came to Naruto's defense. He admonished Sakura, saying that she had gone too far. He harshly reminded her that he and Naruto shared the fact that they were orphans.

Since then, Sakura had felt tremendously guilty and had tried to act nicer towards Naruto. She wouldn't call them friends though, they were far from that.

She began to see Naruto in a new light. Though he always acted like he was indifferent, the subtle actions made it clear that he always cared for his comrades. She noticed that in the two months, Naruto and Sasuke had grown closer as friends. Sasuke too began to see Naruto in a new light. She saw that Naruto clearly knew that he was stronger than Sasuke, but he never rubbed it in the boy's face, instead he used this fact to encourage Sasuke to grow stronger.

She was, by no means, a friend to Naruto, but hoped that he would at least consider her a worthy comrade in time.

The two reached the gates exactly fifteen minutes before seven. Sakura's eyes lit up as she saw the dark haired boy.

"Sasuke-kun!" she waved enthusiastically, and like always, was disappointed when he replied with his customary "Hn."

Sasuke looked around, trying to find Naruto. _'Perhaps this mission may force Naruto to reveal what he is hiding from us'_, he thought. A hand fell on his shoulder and he barely caught himself from yelping. Instead, he turned his head back as calmly as he could to see Naruto's smirking face.

Sasuke tried to play it cool, but knew Naruto had already seen his moment of weakness. Before he could do anything else, Naruto chuckled and patted his shoulder, "It's ok, Sasuke. Even ANBU would be hard pressed to detect me in the middle of my pranks."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that, silently waiting for Naruto to elaborate, but he didn't. Naruto simply leaned against the wall, waiting for their sensei.

Sakura had a confused expression on her face, "Naruto, why don't you have a backpack like me and Sasuke-kun?"

Naruto replied, "Well, for one, sealing scrolls are just more practical to use. It takes time to take of your backpack, and rummage through everything to find what you need. All you need to do in a sealing scroll is unroll it, push chakra into the required seal and voila! So much quicker than backpacks, don't you think? Also, I modified this scroll to suit my needs. I trust my creation more than anything else."

"That's an interesting outlook, Naruto."

The three genin turned around to see Kakashi and their client coming. Tazuna was _still _drinking, but he didn't seem as drunk as he was yesterday.

Kakashi looked at Naruto, "While your logic isn't wrong, it is a bit unconventional for shinobi to use sealing scrolls instead of backpacks. However, if it works for you, I have no problem with it", he finished, shrugging in the end.

Turning towards his other two students, "Are you two ready?"

Seeing them nod, he turned to their client, "Let's go, Tazuna-san."

XXXXXXX

They had left the gates over four hours ago. Four hours of torturous silence. While Naruto appreciated silence, four hours of travelling with someone and not talking at all felt really awkward. He would talk with Tazuna, but nothing came to mind about what to talk. Talking with Kurama wasn't an option; the fox was easily snoring away.

Sakura seemed to sense the awkwardness as well, and she did not have the same problem as Naruto of finding a topic to talk about. "Um, Tazuna-san, you are from wave country right?"

Tazuna turned his head towards her, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Do you have a ninja village in that country?"

Surprisingly, it was Kakashi who answered, "Actually, wave does not have a ninja village. Each of the elemental nations has their own hidden shinobi villages. But the smaller countries don't have the resources to fund, let alone maintain their own hidden village. Budget, people, missions….there are so many resources to account for that the smaller nations can't afford. So they prefer to hire ninjas from other countries."

Naruto only paid half attention to the explanation, the other half of his attention focused on the puddle to the side of the road. It looked so _out of place _on the sunny day that a word automatically rang through his mind, _'Trap.'_

He glanced at Kakashi-sensei, who had also seen the puzzle and figured out it's a genjutsu. He nudged Sasuke, motioning him to glance at the puddle. Sasuke raised an eyebrow for he didn't understand what Naruto was trying to imply, but it suddenly clicked after a moment. He nodded his thanks to Naruto who nodded back. They subtly re-positioned themselves in front of Tazuna.

As soon as they passed the puddle, Naruto's sense of danger buzzed loudly and he called out, "WATCH OUT!" He and Sasuke both jumped back in time, but Kakashi was apparently too slow to react.

Two ninjas jumped from the puddle and attacked Kakashi with a bladed chain, tearing him to shreds. At least that's what Sakura and Sasuke saw. Naruto's senses were fast enough to follow the _kawarimi _followed by a minor genjutsu.

"One down", the one on the right declared. They both then turned their attention towards the genin.

"Sakura, guard Tazuna!" Naruto shouted. He then turned his attention towards the one who was closing in on him. Holding a half ram seal, a shadow clone popped up beside him. Together, they both held kunai in their hands, reverse grip and coated with wind chakra. Due to his excellent chakra control and the chakra conducting metal of the kunai, the wind chakra got shaped like a second and a longer skin to the kunai.

Not wasting any time, both of them engaged the ninja from different sides. The ninja scoffed and tried to use his chain, but both the Narutos' easily dodged it. One of them attacked the chain while the original attacked the ninja. The ninja, whose eyes were wide after seeing the wind chakra on the kunai, was sufficiently distracted with trying to hold of the clone from cutting his chain off.

Naruto took advantage of this and executed a diagonal slash along the torso of the ninja. The wind chakra easily tore through and made a deep cut. Not enough to be fatal, but deep enough to hurt . The ninja cried out in pain and instinctively held his left hand to the cut.

The clone took full advantage of the opening and hit the back of the ninja's head with the blunt head of his kunai, rendering him unconscious.

Naruto and his clone smirked down at the fallen ninja and bumped fists, the action causing the clone to disappear. He looked over to Sasuke, who was about to clash with his opponent, a kunai and shuriken in hand. But before he could do that, a hand appeared in the ninja's path, right in front of his throat.

Needless to say, Kakashi's block easily knocked out the ninja cold. Eye smiling at his students, he said, "Good job on taking him out, Naruto. You too Sasuke, keeping the enemy away from the client. Sorry Sakura, I didn't know you would freeze up like that."

He tied up the two ninja against a tree. He missed the frustrated look on Sasuke's face, which turned into jealousy as he gazed at Naruto, who was watching Kakashi. _'He was easily able to knock out the ninja in less than half a minute! Why couldn't I do that?! I got stuck in engaging the ninja instead of trying to take him out as quickly as possible!' _He clenched his fists in agitation.

Kakashi explained, "These guys are known as the demon brothers. They are rogue chunin of Kirigakure no sato. They are…somewhat dangerous."

Tazuna looked scared out of his wits, "If you were not skewered to pieces, why did you let your genin handle them?"

Kakashi eye smiled, "I had to test them how they would perform in the field. Besides, I had to find out who they were attacking. Us because of the grudge between our villages, or you", he finished with a serious expression.

At that moment, the ninja with one horn, the one whom Naruto had knocked out, seemed to waked up. He groaned in pain, "How…did you know….we were going to attack?"

Naruto spoke up before Kakashi could, "A puddle on a completely sunny day, added to the fact it hasn't rained in weeks. Well done, _genius_", he sarcastically clapped.

Sakura let out a light giggle at this. Naruto's snark was funny when it was aimed at others. Kakashi narrowed his eye at Tazuna, "We need to talk."

Tazuna adopted a nervous expression, "About wh-what?"

"It was stated in the mission scroll that you needed protection from _bandits_, not rogue ninjas. Especially from Kirigakure, where the ninjas complete their missions, no matter the cost. Why would they be after you?" his tone was light, but the suspicion was heavy.

"Unless they were hired specifically to take you out", Naruto added his two cents, pointing at Tazuna.

Tazuna tried to think up an excuse, but it was already too late. With a resigned sigh, he asked them, "Have you heard of a man called Gato?"

Kakashi questioned with a thoughtful frown, "Do you mean one who is among the richest men in the nations? _That _Gato?"

"I've heard of him", Naruto stated. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, silently asking to elaborate. "He is the owner of a shipping company. When I last read about him, he was among the top fifteen richest in the nations. Suspected for criminal activity, but no proof", he said with his arms crossed.

"The very same", Tazuna agreed. "Though now he is among the top five. He came to Wave Country a bit more than two years ago. First we didn't think anything about it, but soon he had bought up all the shipping industry of our nation. You see, Wave Country is an island so we are dependent on the shipping to get goods. But that wasn't the worst part. He used his monopoly to drain the country dry."

"The people live in poverty. Many lost their houses to Gato. Whoever protested is killed. He takes what he wants with his hired thugs, making sure nobody dares to oppose him. His shipping business covers his criminal activities. He deals with drugs, alcoholics, rare goods, even slaves. Everything and anything that brings him money. The only thing he fears is the bridge I'm building. If I finish my bridge, his monopoly will be rendered obsolete and our country will be back in business because we will be connected to the main land."

"So why didn't you just tell the truth to Hokage-sama?" Kakashi glared at him.

Tazuna threw his hands up, "I couldn't! Wave country has been sucked dry. We don't have enough money to pay for more than a C-rank mission!"

Kakashi shook his head, "While that is sad, you had no right to lie to the Hokage. This mission is now at least a B-rank, requiring a team of chunin and jonin. This is not a job my genin are suited to perform!"

Glancing at his students briefly, he said, "But as they are ninjas of Konoha, they have a say in this as much as I do now."

He then turned to his students, "What do you think we should do?"

Naruto was the first to answer, "Protocol dictates that during times like these, the assigned genin team is to immediately abandon the mission and report back to the village for reassignment."

Sasuke glared at Naruto, but before he could speak Naruto continued, "But I say we continue, Kakashi-sensei. This mission is not just about Tazuna wanting to save money. A whole country is about to lose the last shreds of its economy because of one man who wants too much."

Surprisingly, Sasuke brought up a good point, "And we can't afford to let people think that Konoha will let a country fall to such a man. I say we continue, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi looked at the two genin and then at Sakura, who still looked a bit scared. "What about you, Sakura?"

Sakura looked less scared than before, but still scared. "I-I say we g-go forward, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi gazed at her a moment longer. He sighed and then said, "Very well, let's go."

They missed Tazuna's sigh of utter relief.

XXXXXXX

Naruto put seals on both the brothers' foreheads, putting them to sleep. Kakashi told him the Konoha shinobi would be arriving to take them, so he should leave instructions for them on how to release the seal.

After that, the team and Tazuna continued without any further delay until they reached a coast where Tazuna had organized transport to wave country. The man greeted Tazuna and cast a wary eye on the Konoha shinobis, but kept his words to himself.

He stirred them, appearing extremely nervous despite of the dense cover from the morning fog. As soon as the bridge came into view, Kakashi let out a low whistle, "That is one impressive bridge, that is."

Naruto shook his head in wonder, "I've never seen anything as awesome as that bridge before." Sakura was gaping at the sheer size of the bridge and Sasuke was, like always, neutral faced.

Once they reached the shore, the fisherman wished Tazuna best of luck to get home safely while Tazuna thanked him for his help. Kakashi asked Tazuna, "How long is your home away from here?"

"A journey of about one hour and a half."

Kakashi nodded and motioned for his team start walking. Though he didn't know the reason why he suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. Glancing towards his team, he wasn't entirely surprised to see that only Naruto seemed to share his wariness, eyes darting around, ready to react at the slightest notice.

And react he did.

Without any warning, a shuriken flew into a bush on the side, courtesy of Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura jumped at that, along with Tazuna. Kakashi just narrowed his eyes, "What is it Naruto?"

Naruto walked to the bush, a kunai ready in hand. Though he was confused when he only spotted a white rabbit, scared to the bone.

Sakura scolded him, "Baka! Look what you did to the poor rabbit!"

But Kakashi and Naruto were too busy concentrating on the fact that they spotted a white rabbit. _'A snow rabbit whose fur is white? In the spring? The absence of brown fur indicates it was raised in captivity'_, were the thoughts going through the jonin's head. He suddenly realized its purpose.

His shout ran out a second after Naruto's danger sense kicked in. "DOWN!" Everyone dropped to the ground, just in time to avoid a giant, spinning from cutting off their heads. Naruto saw that Sasuke was able to bring Tazuna just in time.

Everyone stood up and turned towards the tree in which the sword was buried, a man standing on the handle. He had black hair and brown eyes, his slashed Kiri headband tilted upwards to the left side of his head, signifying his status as a missing nin. He wore mist stripped pants and hand warmers that extended to his biceps.

Kakashi's voice took a tone of mock surprise, "Well well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, rogue nin and former member of the seven swordsmen of the mist."

The now identified Zabuza raised a non-existent eyebrow, "So you have heard of me." The man's posture radiated confidence and power. "I'm going to ask you to hand over the old man to me. You do that and you get to escape with your lives."

Kakashi had a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. _'This is really bad. Zabuza is a high A-rank missing nin, bordering S-rank, which easily upgrades this B-rank to a high A-rank.'_

Naruto had similar thoughts running through his head, _'Damn, our luck must be really bad if we have to face off against a swordsman of the mist. I don't stand a chance against him. But we have no choice other than to fight. Damn it !'_

Naruto took out two kunai from his hip pouches, held in reverse grip and ready to engage, but Kakashi held a hand in front of him. "Everyone stay back. He is not someone you can take on. It'll be tough, even for me. Unless I use this…", he said, lifting up his hitai-ate and exposing a blood red eye with three tomoes in a circular pattern.

Zabuza gave a dark, amused chuckle, "The sharingan, this early Kakashi? I'm honored. I've read about you, back when I was in ANBU. The man who is said to have copied over a thousand jutsu, Sharingan no Kakashi."

Sasuke's head whipped around to stare at Kakashi, more specifically, at his left eye. _'How does he have the sharingan? It's supposed to be an Uchiha clan dojutsu! Did he steal one on the night of the massacre?'_

Before he could think of anything else, mist slowly started to surround them. In just a few moments, the mist was so thick it was hard to see two feet in front of them.

Suddenly, an incredible amount of killing intent filled the air, causing all of them to tense up. But Naruto relaxed after a moment, having gathered his wits. This was nothing compared to what Kurama put him through. Sasuke and Sakura were another story; Sasuke was frozen in his place, while Sakura was barely keeping herself from crying. The killing intent seemed to relax and Kakashi's voice rang out, "Don't worry, Sasuke, Sakura! There is no way I will let my comrades die!" Kakashi had released his own killing intent, easing up some of the pressure.

Turning back Kakashi said, "He'll come after me first. Zabuza is a known master of the silent killing technique. Before you know it's over."

Naruto whispered back, "But sensei, aren't you at a disadvantage here? The sharingan is not meant to see through dense fogs like this. You would be needlessly wasting your chakra."

Kakashi had to admit Naruto had a point. Before he could say anything, Zabuza's voice came from all around the mist, "Eight points: Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, jugular vein, brain, kidneys and heart. These places, if hit too hard or cut too deep, are a one hit kill. Where should I strike first?"

Naruto formed a single bird seal. _'Fuuton: Toppa!' _(Wind style: Breakthrough) The burst of wind he expelled blew away all the fog, revealing Zabuza standing a few feet away from the group, sword in hand.

"Now it is better for you, sensei", Naruto smiled, kunai held in reverse grips. He had already released all his resistance seals.

Zabuza clicked his tongue in annoyance, _'Annoying brat, he cancelled out my jutsu. How the hell does a genin know wind manipulation anyway?!'_

Naruto saw it. Zabuza was staring at him with annoyance, but before he could react, Kakashi appeared behind his back, slashing at him. Zabuza collapsed in a puddle of water.

'_Mizu Bunshin, huh?' _Naruto and Kakashi thought simultaneously. Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi, slashing him off. A flicker of surprise was visible when Kakashi too, collapsed into water. Kakashi came up behind him, "Nice try", he mocked.

Zabuza chuckled, "So you copied my jutsu, hiding in the trees and waiting to strike. Clever."

He swung his blade towards Kakashi, who ducked under it and slashed his own kunai as a counter. However, the force behind Zabuza's blade was much more than Kakashi anticipated, and almost went down to his knees. Zabuza did not hesitate in giving a chakra enforced kick to Kakashi, who was unable to dodge in time.

Gritting his teeth, he crossed his arms and blocked it. He was rewarded with promptly being sent flying over into the water. Surfacing, he instantly knew something was wrong. The water was too heavy.

"Too slow!" Zabuza said as he appeared behind Kakashi, weaving hand seals. "Suiton: Suiro no jutsu!" (Water style: Water prison jutsu). In a matter of seconds, Kakashi was trapped in a dome of water maintained by Zabuza. Though both of them didn't notice Naruto's smile, having successfully copied the jutsu.

"None of you know what it means to be a ninja. When I was your age brats, I already had blood on my hands."

Sakura asked, "What do you mean?"

Kakashi said, "He is talking about the reason he became known as the demon of the mist. Fifteen years ago, a child killed over a hundred students. A child who wasn't even a ninja."

Naruto lamely uttered, "Oh…..". However, he was quick to recover, "Well, here goes!"

Kakashi tried to stop him, "Don't, Naruto! We have lost! Take the client and run!" "Hell no sensei! We are not going without our team leader! You still owe us some real training!"

Naruto was about to use the water chain jutsu to disrupt Zabuza's control on the prison, but was forced to dodge the water clone that tried to take his head off. His heart was pumping, his adrenaline levels rising, his mind entering battle focus.

He complimented Zabuza, "Using a jutsu while maintaining another one? That's some really impressive chakra control!" He easily weaved between the slashes.

Zabuza, the clone, chuckled, "Thanks kid. You aren't too bad yourself, dodging my strikes like that."

Naruto flipped back, putting some distance between him and the clone. "Well, having a giant butcher knife like that doesn't exactly do you a favor in the department of speed, pal", he offhandedly commented.

Forming the hare sign, he thought _'Suiton: Mizurappa!' _(Water style: Wild water wave) A wave of water rushed at the clone from his mouth, who jumped up to dodge. Smirking, Naruto formed the half ram to weave the water towards the clone, who couldn't dodge mid-air. He was expelled into water.

Not wasting any time, Naruto maintained the half ram and formed over twenty shadow clones, who moved to engage the real Zabuza, who scoffed and easily dealt with them with his blade one by one.

While this was happening, Naruto took the opportunity to shake Sasuke out of his stupor. Gripping his shoulders tightly, he harshly whispered, "Get your head back in the game, Sasuke! I need your help to free Kakashi-sensei!"

It seemed to do the trick as Sasuke snapped back into awareness. In a moment of acknowledging Naruto as leader, he asked, "What should we do?"

Naruto unrolled his scroll and slapped his hand onto a seal. A puff of smoke revealed a fuma shuriken, folded. Naruto rolled the scroll back and slung it. All of this happened in just ten seconds.

He handed the folded shuriken to Sasuke, who glared at him, "A simple fuma shuriken won't work, _dobe_." Naruto thrust it into his hands anyway, an impatient look on his face that said, _Just follow my lead_.

As soon as Sasuke held it, a look of realization came onto his face and he looked at Naruto with wide eyes, who smirked and winked at him. A predatory smirk of his own appeared as he prepared to follow Naruto's plan.

Zabuza had just finished off the clones when he spotted the Uchiha holding a fuma shuriken and running at him. The brat leaped impressively high and threw it at him. Zabuza was not impressed.

He simply plucked the shuriken from air as if catching a freeze bee. "Is that all you can think of, brats?" Suddenly, another shuriken appeared, hidden in the shadow of the first.

Zabuza scoffed angrily, "You are underestimating me, brats! Still not good enough!" He simply jumped over the shuriken, his other hand still maintaining the water prison.

"Got him", Sasuke murmured with a smirk as Naruto beside him disappeared into smoke. Zabuza's eyes widened as he heard a poof behind him, seeing the second shuriken turning into Naruto, who had a kunai in hand.

Naruto figured with a tiny smirk that just throwing a kunai won't do the job, so he would let loose the flying thunder god just this once. The kunai he was holding had his _jutsu shiki _on the handle. Just to maintain the appearance of a _kawarimi_, he had another kunai ready.

He threw the kunai with his formula towards Zabuza, who cursed mentally. _'I can't dodge that unless…'_, he released his hold from the water prison, jumping to the side.

Just as the kunai cut Zabuza, Naruto threw the normal kunai a little bit upwards beside him and vanished in a blue flash, holding the handle of the marked kunai in his left hand. Spinning mid-air once, he landed a clean, open palm thrust into Zabuza's chest, who was too stunned at the fact that Naruto appeared in front of him in an instant.

The purpose of the thrust was not to injure, but rather to mark Zabuza, so he would know where he is. Still, Zabuza skid back a few feet from Naruto, who landed on the water.

Zabuza glanced to where Naruto had thrown the kunai from. He saw the kunai buried in a rock over there. _'Was that kawarimi?... No, if it was, the brat wouldn't snatch the kunai mid-air, but would appear __**with **__the kunai. Just what was that?'_

His thoughts were spinning furiously as he gazed at Naruto, who was now holding two kunai in reverse grip, dark blue wind chakra sharpening them into mini swords. _'He can use Fuuton and Suiton ninjutsu, has enough chakra to use the shadow clone jutsu without worry, his chakra control is good enough for him to water walk, AND he can use wind chakra to sharpen his kunai? Is he a genin for real?!'_

He dashed towards Naruto, who prepared to flash step away and if necessary, defend himself. "That's enough from you, brat!" Just as he was about to stab Naruto, he was blocked by none other than Kakashi.

He had halted the sword using a reverse gripped kunai, rage swimming in his eyes. "You've got some nerve…..", the whisper was deadly enough that even Naruto shivered a bit. He was not only angry at himself for making a rookie mistake and getting himself caught, but the man had the gall to attack his genin.

"Your trick won't work twice, Zabuza", he promised the man, slowly. Without turning his gaze away, he spoke to Naruto, "Brilliant plan, Naruto. Distracting Zabuza by getting Sasuke to help you. Excellent job!" Zabuza tsked, "I lost concentration for a moment and cancelled the technique-"

"Don't give yourself too much credit. You were forced to cancel it", Kakashi's sharp voice cut it.

Naruto nodded and seeing his work was done, he put the kunai away and flash stepped back to Sasuke, who jumped a bit at his suddenness.

He observed Kakashi, who had jumped away from Zabuza and was using the power of the sharingan to its full effect. Immediately, he put his index and middle finger into the water, eyes on Kakashi's hands and senses on his chakra. He carefully sensed how chakra was being molded inside Kakashi.

After a chain of forty four hand seals, two identical water dragons appeared, taking each other out. Zabuza moved in to engage Kakashi with his blade, while Kakashi parried back. They continued this for two minutes after which Zabuza jumped back, starting a new series of hand signs. Kakashi wasted no time in copying them, and Naruto wasted no time in using his own style to copy Kakashi.

Sasuke was in a daze, seeing the power of the sharingan so close. _'Did he really copy all the hand seals?'_

"My moves. He is...", Zabuza thought, before they were interrupted.

"...Reading them." Kakashi said, finishing Zabuza's thought.

"Did he read my mind? He is..."

"...Really pissing me off with that damn eye of his." Kakashi finished, for Zabuza. Continuing to copy Zabuza's hand signs.

Continuing with his hand seals with Kakashi copying Zabuza, the man yelled, "All you're doing is copying me!" "You can't beat me with those cheap circus tricks, you monkey bastard!" Kakashi yelling the same thing, continued to copy hand signs.

Zabuza came to a slight stop, seeing an image of himself behind Kakashi. "What is that, a Genjutsu?" Zabuza thought.

His slight falter cost him the victory as Kakashi finished the jutsu ahead of him, "Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu!" (Water style: Giant vortex jutsu)

Literally, a giant vortex formed around Kakashi, much larger than his body. It approached Zabuza at incredible speeds, who was unable to do anything. It slammed into him, and he was washed away like an insect under the force of the jutsu, slamming roughly into a tree and leaving him dazed.

Kakashi approached Zabuza with a kunai in hand, intent on finishing him off. Groaning in pain and bracing himself for his death, Zabuza asked him, "Can you see the future?"

Kakashi answered, "Yes…and your future….is death."

Naruto sweat dropped, _'What a corny guy!'_

Just as Kakashi was about to finish the job, two senbon came out of nowhere, hitting Zabuza in the neck. The man fell to the ground with a thud.

All of them looked around to spot where the senbon came from, but Naruto pointed towards a tree, from which came a soft chuckle. A masked person was standing on a branch, "Looks like you were right."

The person had long black hair along with a slender frame. The outfit was Kirigakure pinstriped which stopped at his knees. There was a brown sash around the waist with a tail, wrapped around twice. But the most identifying thing about the person was the mask they wore. It was white with thin, curved eye-holes and a red wavy design in place of the mouth, as well as the Kirigakure symbol etched in the top.

The person was a hunter nin.

Naruto couldn't quite place the voice as female or male. It was…..unsettling. He would assume it as a male, though.

"I thank you for your help", he said as he jumped down. Kakashi knelt and checked Zabuza's pulse to see if the man was truly dead or not. Finding nothing, he concluded that Zabuza was dead.

"I have been hunting him for quite a while", he said. Picking up the body, he prepared to _shunshin _away when Naruto's voice rang out.

"Wait!" The hunter nin turned to face Naruto's narrowed eyes, "As a hunter nin, isn't it your job to dispose the bodies on the spot?"

The hunter nin saw the suspicion in the blonde's eyes and explained, "This body holds many secrets. The village would like to know them before doing that." With that, he was gone.

Kakashi pulled his headband down, "Well, that is over with…", and promptly fell face first into the ground.

Sakura rushed to him, "Kakashi-sensei!" She turned him over to see that his eye was closed.

"It's probably chakra exhaustion, Sakura", she turned towards Naruto. He explained, "The sharingan is an Uchiha kekkei genkai. It is not meant for him and as such, consumes his charka faster. He just needs time to recover."

Tazuna spoke up, "Well in that case, let's hurry to my house where he can recover safely." Naruto nodded and created three shadow clones. One of them _henged _into a stretcher while the other two put the exhausted jonin on it and started walking.

Sasuke walked beside Naruto, "Hey Naruto", the said boy looked at him,"How did you know about the demon brothers before they attacked us? And what was that earlier, putting your fingers in the water?"

Naruto turned to him, confused, "Haven't I told you before that I am a sensor?"

Sasuke's eyes immediately narrowed at him, "What?!"

Naruto sighed; this will take a while.

XXXXXXX

Meanwhile, back in the village, the Sandaime was sitting in the meeting room with the shinobi council on one side and the civilian council on the other. The three elders, Homura, Koharu and Danzo stood on his right side.

A civilian spoke up, "Why have you called this meeting, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen did not reply to this, eyes closed and expression of deep thought. At last he spoke.

"Do you all, especially the civilian council", he glared at the mentioned council, "Know why the civilian council was established by my sensei, Nidaime-sama?"

There was no answer from both the sides, but the elders and Shikaku seemed to grasp the true purpose of the meeting from the question.

Koharu moved forward, "Hokage-sama, you can't-" She was silenced with a wave of killing intent. It made one thing very clear in everyone's heads, _'He is in a bad mood today.'_

"To assist the shinobi council in times of war. Last I checked, Konoha hasn't been at war for the last fifteen years. Therefore, your entire existence is debunk." Outraged cries came from the civilian section, but killer intent from the shinobi side for interrupting the Hokage silenced them.

The Hokage glared at them, "If anyone interrupts me one more time, I will have that person executed. Understood?" He enforced that threat with killing intent. After seeing their urgent nods, he continued.

"The only reason, and I have checked the records thoroughly", he said motioning to the big pile of paperwork beside him, "That the only reason they exist is because of political mongering and bribing some members of the shinobi council." His eyes swept the entire room, intensifying the tension.

"My hands were tied after the Kyuubi's attack and the Uchiha massacre. The civilian council took advantage of this and began to take charge of more important tasks by bribing the shinobi side", he said while glaring at the two elders, who didn't even look into his eyes.

"Until they finally managed to get their hands on the shinobi academy, the most important stage of the shinobis' career. Changing the syllabus and actually lowering the standard of shinobi, the council gradually became more corrupt. Tell me if I'm wrong", he finished, practically glaring at everyone and daring them to disagree.

Danzo grit his teeth. The civilian council was easily manipulated and as such, was a form of power that he could control, not the Hokage. But it seemed Sarutobi had finally had enough of their bullshit and was going to dissolve the council. The worst about all of this: He could not lift a finger to do anything without resorting to Shisui's eye, and he would rather die than attempt something that foolish.

No one spoke in the council room, which was enough of an answer that the Hokage had hit the bullseye.

"I will hold a vote now. To dissolve the civilian council", he declared. A fat man stood up, face red and red to shout at the Hokage. He didn't even finish the first word that came out of his mouth before his head rolled on the ground, courtesy of the ANBU. They cleaned up and vanished back into the shadows.

Suddenly seeming to remember something, he turned to the elders, "Before I commence the vote, the elders will not be voting seeing that their position only allows them to advise and as such, have no say in any final decision made by the Hokage."

Koharu and Homura had a defeated posture. Heads down, shoulders sagged, an aura of dismay. Danzo simply stared ahead, not showing any emotions. Sarutobi had caught them totally unawares with this maneuver.

"All against dissolving the civilian council on basis of the charges that I have read." The entire civilian side raised their hands, but they knew that they were defeated.

"All in favor of dissolving the civilian council on basis of the charges I have read." The entire shinobi side raised their hands. Their numbers were equal to that of the civilians, but the air of smugness was unmistakable in the room.

A tie breaking vote was required of the Hokage who said, "I am in favor of this notion."

Straightening up, he declared, "The civilian council is dissolved as of today. I will appoint a shinobi committee to review all the corrupted laws they have passed related in favor of themselves. A separate division will be responsible for reviewing shinobi areas. The civilian council can leave now."

All of them slowly got up, an air of defeat around them all. They filed out of the chamber one by one. "The elders please leave, I have some important things to discuss with the shinobi clan heads."

The elders couldn't protest against this as well. Clan business was serious, and no one, even the Hokage was to interfere unless it concerned the integrity of the village.

As soon as they left the room, Hiruzen snapped his fingers. An ANBU appeared with a scroll held in his hand. He put it on the Hokage's desk and went back to his post. A signal from the Hokage caused all the ANBU to leave the room.

Hiruzen opened it, revealing it to be a storage scroll. He slapped his hand on the scroll and in a puff of smoke, a bottle of sake and the same number of cups as the shinobi council appeared. Hiruzen smirked, "Who wants drinks?"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**Author's note: Hey guys! Thank you Ky111, speedsters and arrows for your awesome comments and words of encouragement. Infinity mask, I commend you. I was wondering when someone would spot that. But no, not all abilities. He can't predict his opponent's moves, he can't cast genjutsu, he can't copy his movements. Knight121198, I thought of that before, but that would make Naruto too much op, so please accept my sorry. XenoLucifer, MY story, MY rules. And if you can't read beyond a point, don't. You don't need to ridicule people's work. But you ought to look at the no. of followers of this story. People seem to like it, don't they? Thomaspheasant, sorry but updates will only be once a week. Onto the story!**

Naruto had the others arrange into a formation. Sasuke and Sakura would guard Tazuna from the front while he would protect them from the rear. Sasuke had rudely questioned who had made him the leader. Naruto had coolly responded that if he had a better idea, then speak up.

As Naruto suspected, Sasuke didn't exactly have a lot of bright ideas. With a glare hot enough to burn metal, he had growled at Naruto, "Just because I am doing this doesn't mean you can order me around, _dobe_. You will tell me everything about your sensing ability."

Naruto had sighed at that. It seemed Sasuke's inferiority complex was acting up, probably because of what happened with Zabuza and the demon brothers. Maybe he was also pissed about seeing the hunter nin from before. Someone their age and already a part of the hunter nin program must set him off. They thankfully made it to Tazuna's house without any more attacks.

They all saw it, the lakeside house. They all waited on the porch as Tazuna went and knocked on the front door. After a minute, the door swung open and a slim, pretty woman rushed out and embraced Tazuna. Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, _'_Probably_ must be his daughter.'_

"Tou-san, I'm so glad you are safe!" She spoke with obvious relief in her voice before she spotted the ninja behind him. She gave them a small bow, "I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Tsunami, please come in. Is he hurt?" She asked, pointing towards the half-conscious Kakashi on the stretcher. Her eyes widened at the three identical blondes, but she was quick to recover.

Naruto spoke up, "He's simply exhausted, Tsunami-san. Is there a room where we can put him?" She smiled and moved aside for them to come. Sasuke and Sakura removed their shinobi sandals and went inside while Naruto first removed Kakashi's sandals and then removed his shoes, going inside. The small gesture of caring brought an unseen smile onto Kakashi's face.

Tsunami answered, "I just need to put down a futon. I'm sorry, but I didn't get your names….."

Sakura smiled, "Haruno Sakura, Tsunami-san." Tsunami smiled tightly at her. Something about the girl just unsettled her.

Sasuke was much ruder, "Uchiha Sasuke." He barely glanced at her, dismissing her as unimportant. Naruto threw him a dirty glare for that, which was whole-heartedly reciprocated.

Naruto turned around and smiled, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Tsunami-san. Nice to meet you." When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. This was demonstrated when Tsunami returned his easy grin and replied, "Nice to meet you too, Naruto-kun. Follow me upstairs where you can lay your sensei down for rest."

After the futon was laid down and Kakashi on it, Naruto just stared at the wall blankly, processing what happened to them so far. A hand on the shoulder snapped him out of trance. He looked up to see Tsunami's face, full of concern. It was a bit strange, having someone look at him like that. It gave him a funny feeling in his stomach.

"Are you ok, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto took some time to respond, "I'm ok." Standing up and putting a small smile on his face, he turned to her and asked, "So, Tsunami-san, how about I help you cook dinner?"

XXXXXXX

It took two days for Kakashi to regain consciousness. Naruto dutifully changed his bandages, helped Tsunami cook dinner and kept a watch on Kakashi while Sakura and Sasuke…..Well, they really didn't do anything significant. Sasuke trained; Sakura did too, but not as much. She only did a little before sitting on a rock and watching Sasuke with hearts in eyes. What those two didn't know that twenty of Naruto's shadow clones, divided in to two groups were learning the two new jutsu Naruto brought with him, far deep into the forest.

Naruto was in Kakashi's room, drawing up ideas for new types of flash tags and explosive tags when he noticed Kakashi's breath hitch. Putting his sealing supplies aside, he walked over and knelt down, removing the wet cloth from Kakashi's forehead. Something just in case Kakashi caught a fever.

"Sensei?" he whispered. He saw as Kakashi attempted to get up while keeping his eyes closed. He placed a firm hand on the man's shoulder, pushing the man back down, "That would be unwise, considering it might set your recovery back."

Kakashi opened his eyes with a pained groan, persisting even when the light seemed to burn through his eye. After finally opening his eye, he looked around and assessed that they had safely made it to Tazuna's home. He figured that his genin might have gotten pretty bored, especially Sasuke if the occasional tremors indicating Sasuke's _great fireball _to burn off some steam.

He looked to his side, seeing a mildly concerned Naruto looking down at him with his azure blues. He was reminded of another blonde who used to give him the same look. He pushed that aside and smiled cheerily.

"Oh hello, Naruto."

A small smile came onto his face and he replied back, "About time you woke up. I'll alert the others." He stood up and walked over to the window and saw what he had been seeing for the past two days. Sakura sitting on the ground and having hearts in her eyes and Sasuke blowing off trees. He decided to break their peace.

"HEY SAKURA, DUCKASS!" He ignored Kakashi's snort at the nickname. "SENSEI IS AWAKE!" With that he went back to Kakashi's side, not even checking if they were coming or not.

Two minutes later, Sakura and Sasuke walked through the door, coming to stand in front of their sensei. Sakura sat down in a whirl of pink and red, exclaiming in relief, "Sensei, you are awake!"

Naruto quietly scoffed and looked to the side. She was saying it as if she was the one looking after him for the past two days, skipping her training. **'Quick to claim others' credit, isn't she?'** Kurama's voice spoke, faintly lined with disgust.

Naruto mentally rose an eyebrow, _'Quite a long nap you took.' _Then he shrugged, _'Also, she's not taking credit. She's just …useless. She just wants to be seen doing something. I'm actually glad sensei keeps his sharingan covered, otherwise he would hate to accidentally copy her uselessness'_, he commented, prompting a snort of laughter from the fox.

Kakashi decided to find out what he'd missed. "So, what happened after I went down?"

Sakura spoke before Naruto could, "Well, after you went down, we carried you to Tazuna-san's house. You've been out of two days, Kakashi-sensei. We've just been training and guarding the house."

Naruto wanted to say that she has been only fangirling Sasuke, who was the only one who watched the house. He also wanted to say that he has been taking care of Kakashi the whole time, but decided that it would look very petty on his part and opted to keep quiet. Also, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. He decided to speak up.

"Sensei, we're gonna have to train to fight Zabuza again", he said with a serious look on his face.

Sasuke turned to him, an eyebrow raised as if mocking him, "Zabuza died when that hunter nin hit him with the senbon. Or did you forget that, _dobe_?" Sakura nodded, as always, in favor of Sasuke. Does she even think for herself or does she just follow him, he mused.

Naruto shook his head, "I never forget, Sasuke. But you probably have forgotten what we read about hunter nin in the academy. They are supposed to destroy the body on the spot, not take it away. Also, the senbon hit a very specific spot, in the back of the neck", he trailed off, opting for Kakashi to continue.

Sakura scoffed, "Please Naruto, sensei checked and there was no pulse-" "I'm afraid that Naruto is right, Sakura. It is very much possible that Zabuza is alive", Kakashi grimly said.

Sakura and Sasuke both had disbelieving expressions, letting Kakashi continue, "The back of the neck where the senbon hit…I think that the nin most likely put Zabuza in a death like state, which is most likely why I couldn't find a pulse as it was so weak."

He further explained, "The weapon that nin used has a low fatality rate unless it hits a critical spot. The nin took Zabuza with him, even though Zabuza was much heavier than him. Also, he used a weapon with low fatality rate. With these two points, we can conclude that the nin wanted to help Zabuza."

Tazuna looked skeptical, "Is it possible that you are over thinking this?"

Kakashi's reply was swift, "No. Once a ninja fells that there's something out of place, they must prepare for it before it's too late."

Naruto folded his arms across his chest, "So how long do you think we have, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi rubbed his chin in thought and said, "I'd say….about one week. He'll need that much time to come back to full strength from a death like state. That's what I'd need as well."

Sakura gave him a look as if he was crazy, "Sensei, how are we supposed to train if you're to rest?"

Kakashi eye smiled, "Don't worry, my cute little students. I don't need much to train you. A crutch is all I need."

"Excuse me everyone, dinner is ready", a voice came from the door and all of them turned to look at Tsunami, who was wiping her hands of a towel.

Kakashi eye smiled and asked her, "Hello, you might be…?"

Tsunami smiled, "Oh, so you've finally woken up. Naruto-kun took good care of you then." He looked at Naruto who had a faint blush on his cheeks and was looking away, arms still crossed. Kakashi resisted the urge to ruffle his hair, because the kid looked _damned cute _right now.

"Anyway, I'm Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. Pleased to meet you", she bowed. Kakashi bowed as much as he could while sitting, "Pleased to meet you too, Tsunami-san."

Tsunami turned to Naruto, "Please help your sensei down, Naruto-kun. And thank you for your shadow clones' help in the kitchen."

Naruto waved his hand, "They are an excellent kitchen crew for me too. Don't mention it." With that Sakura and Sasuke filed out of the room, not bothering to help Kakashi up.

Naruto gave a disgusted shake of his head and stood up. Putting Kakashi's left arm over his shoulders, he helped him up, supporting his full weight like it was nothing.

"Arigatou, Naruto. For taking care of me", Kakashi murmured, eye smiling. It was quite weird for him. Only two cared for him like Naruto did in the last two days and they were both Naruto's parents. Naruto shook his head, smiling, "You are my sensei. I didn't do it because it was my duty to take care of you like you do, I did it because I wanted to."

Kakashi gazed at Naruto with a wide eye, who ignored it and slowly helped the man downstairs. Using what little strength he had, he pulled Naruto into a one armed hug. Naruto initially stiffened, but relaxed after a few seconds. No words needed to be spoken.

He helped Kakashi sit on the table and sat beside him, close in case he needed to feed him. But he hoped Kakashi had enough pride to not face fall during eating. The small gesture caused Tsunami to smile, _'Such a sweet boy.'_

Kakashi couldn't stop the eye smile. He didn't show it, but he was glad there was someone like Naruto to care for him. Kami knows he has no one left close to him now. This feeling made him want to do everything not to disappoint Naruto.

Naruto gazed at the small boy who was sitting beside Tazuna. Somehow, he cast a somber atmosphere around him. Half of his face was hidden beneath his hat. Tazuna smiled and spoke up, "Inari, greet these nice ninjas. They will make sure I'm safe while building my super bridge!"

Inari looked up and Naruto immediately understood why the boy felt so sad. He had that look in his eyes, he had lost someone very dear to him.

"But jiji, they're all going to die!" he cried out, as if he was stating a fact.

Naruto suddenly understood the boy's position a whole lot better, so instead of being angry, he just felt a deep sense of empathy and sadness for such a young child hurting.

Of course, Sasuke didn't take it too well. "You don't know that, brat", his voice had a little bit of scorn added into it along with his usual rudeness.

Naruto's head snapped to glare at him, "Sasuke!" he snapped. That was not how someone talks to a child. Particularly a child who has eyes like _that_.

Sasuke returned the glare, but he to turn his eyes away after a few seconds. He didn't speak after that.

Dinner went quietly after that, though Naruto got a bit embarrassed when Tsunami thanked him again for his help for cleaning the dishes. They set up their beds in separate rooms. Naruto and Sasuke would take the room with Kakashi while Sakura would share the room with Tsunami. As soon as he went into the bathroom and quickly made a half ram sign to dispel all the shadow clones. As the memories came into his mind, he sorted through them and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

The two jutsu needed a lot of work. The fuuton jutsu was a bit too complicated, so it would require time. He had to first gather air in his lungs, which was the easy part. The hard part was the shape manipulation; it was not easy to compress all of the air into an explosive ball of high density. He also had to be extremely cautious about it; if that ball exploded while inside him, game over. All of his clones practicing this jutsu were dispelled because of this, so Naruto had to discreetly create another batch and have them flash to the other clones' location. It was also taking him too long to do all of this.

'_Well, I can personally work on it tomorrow, now that Kakashi sensei is awake'_, he thought.

The suiton jutsu was not as hard as wind jutsu, just tricky. He already knew how to expel water from his mouth. But making that jet of water highly pressurized so it could cut through stones was no piece of cake. Still, his clones managed to make it sharp enough to put a deep scratch on the barks, but not cut through it. _'Better than nothing. I have to master these jutsu before we confront Zabuza again"_, he thought resolutely.

He walked out of the bathroom and laid down on his bed, closing his eyes and trying to work out theories to master the two jutsus faster. He found himself laying beside Kurama in their mindscape, and it looked like he wanted to talk.

"**You had quite a fight"**, he remarked, looking faintly amused. Naruto shot a blank look at him.

"_Just how long do you sleep in a single stretch anyway?"_

Kurama gave a graceful shrug as he settled his head on his hands, eyes gazing peacefully at the moon. **"Depends. You handled you first actual fight quite well"**, he commented.

Naruto raised his eyebrows, unimpressed, _"You were impressed with my fight with the demon brothers ?_

Kurama returned his own unimpressed stare, **"I don't mean those weaklings. I meant Zabuza. You kept your mind calm, analyzed the situation, figured the best way to escape and a way to attack your enemy. Nice touch with the Hiraishin, by the way. Gives you a way to track him now"**, he said, grinning at the end.

Naruto smiled, _"Thanks, it means a lot to me."_

Kurama sat up a little, **"I saw that you had some trouble with the two new jutsus."**

Naruto gave a grunt.

The fox glanced at him, **"If you want, I can give you advice on how to master them quickly." **He got the desired response as Naruto sat up, curiosity almost burning in his eyes.

"_Really? Thank you so much, Kurama!" _he smiled, his big blues shining a bit.

Kurama made a disgusted face, **"Keep your sappiness to yourself, you brat."**

Naruto laughed, _"Sorry, couldn't resist it."_ He didn't look sorry at all. After he was finished laughing, he gave Kurama his full attention.

Kurama began his explanation, **"Your fuuton jutsu is only a bit tough, if you look at closely. You are simply overthinking it. What you should do is when you gather the air inside you, gather it in a way that it is spinning and compressed. That way you can control its explosive effect and power. It should be fast enough to catch someone off guard, so build up a lot of pressure simultaneously when you create the air ball by creating a bit of vacuum. Use that pressure to give explosive speed to the ball."**

Naruto nodded, having made sense of the entire explanation. He would try that tomorrow, and hopefully prevent a Sasuke tantrum. If he saw what Naruto was practicing, he would throw a fit.

Kurama continued, **"Your suiton jutsu isn't hard as you think. Think of it this way; if you have a pipeline with water blowing out of it onto a wall, you would only get a wet wall. But if that pipeline's opening was as made a whole lot smaller…"**

He left it to Naruto to finish his line of thinking, and he wasn't disappointed. _"Then the pressure would be considerably high if the speed were to be kept the same. The high pressure would make the water sharp enough to cut through rocks. You are brilliant, Kurama!" _he exclaimed with wide eyes.

Kurama looked considerably smug, **"Of course I am. The jutsus of you humans are laughably easy to us demons! There are only a few of them we can't do!"**

Naruto shook his head, smiling softly. Kurama was entirely too proud of himself, but Naruto bit his lip, not wanting to offend the demon by pointing out that he got sealed for a total of three times.

"_Alright Kurama, thanks for your tips. I'll master them in no time!" _he flashed a monstrous grin, which was returned by the demon in front of him.

With that, he finally entered REM sleep.

XXXXXXX

Naruto's eyes opened at his regular time of five, but he stayed in bed, thinking things over. He suspected that Kakashi might know about his use of _Hiraishin _against Zabuza. He hadn't exactly hidden himself with smoke bombs, after all. And Zabuza might have been surprised by his trick, but Kakashi had already seen it in the bell test. Even though it was _kawarimi_, but this time Kakashi had seen it with his own eyes. With him watching with the sharingan, there was no way he would dismiss it as a simple replacement.

He sighed heavily. He was not looking forward to the talk. There was so much to explain…..

Realizing his thoughts were leading him into nothing but distress, he got up, hoping to get some morning air. Keeping his steps quiet so as to not disturb Kakashi and Sasuke, he dressed up and headed outside, hoping to put Kurama's theories to test.

He got outside, getting some relief from the slight chill of the morning air. He allowed his senses to spread and a tiny frown made its way onto his face when he sensed someone making their way from behind him. Noiseless steps, probably hoping to catch him off guard.

"I didn't know you were awake, Kakashi-sensei."

"Well, I wasn't until I heard you move out", he came up beside him, eye scrunched up in a smile. Naruto returned a small smile.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Kakashi finally broke the silence with a question.

"What jutsu was that on the bridge, Naruto?"

Even though he had prepared for that question to be asked, Naruto was still caught off guard. Kakashi noticed the minute flinch that Naruto couldn't hide, accompanied by a slightly fearful glint in his eyes. Realizing he had probably scared the boy, he backtracked.

"I was just curious, Naruto. It was something like what you tried in the bell test", he trailed off, silently asking Naruto to elaborate.

Naruto hated when Kakashi got like this, demanding answers from him. And the worst thing was that Naruto had no reason to hide anything from him. Steeling himself, he looked into Kakashi's single eye.

"Before I say anything, Kakashi-sensei, can you promise me that you will keep this to yourself and only yourself?"

If Kakashi looked surprised by his request, he didn't show it. He wondered just what Naruto was hiding that was so important as to not tell his team members. He was also requesting total secrecy, but Kakashi drew the line there.

He narrowed his eye, "If Hokage-sama asks me, then it's my duty to tell him, Naruto."

Naruto relaxed a bit at that, "The old man already knows of this."

Kakashi too, relaxed at that. Keeping secrets from his leader, then having the said leader interrogate you was not fun at all. "So, you will show me?" The slight hope in his voice made Naruto smile, if only a little.

Naruto gestured to his hand, where his sleeve was folded, exposing his wrist before the metal plated gloves. Kakashi shrugged, offering his wrist, "Sure."

Naruto wrapped his hand around Kakashi's wrist for a moment, then let go, turning back to watch the sunrise. Kakashi examined his wrist curiously, wanting to find out just what Naruto did.

His eyes widened and he almost choked on his spit upon seeing a seal formula that looked remarkably similar to what his sensei used. His neck snapped towards Naruto, who was looking back at him with a smirk.

"I-is this…..?"

"Yup! Sure is!" Naruto claimed proudly. "But unlike his, the flash is blue. Since my chakra is a deep blue, you know…"

Kakashi tried to recover from the surprise that Naruto had figured out the technique that made the Yondaime the most feared shinobi across all lands. Trying to keep his voice steady, he asked, "Can you….demonstrate?"

Naruto frowned but nodded. He flash stepped to a tree about a hundred meters away, missing Kakashi's look of surprise at the use. Without wasting any time, he flashed behind Kakashi, the jonin's neck turning so fast Naruto sworn he heard it crack.

Kakashi's mind was blown out of proportions when he saw the blue flash of Naruto's _Hiraishin_. The fact that Naruto had mastered one of the most complex techniques he had ever seen, hell, _even his sensei_ had ever seen was nothing short of stupefying. He recovered and looked at Naruto, who was watching him carefully.

"…..I can see why you want to keep this a secret. Sasuke would throw a fit if he saw you using something that", Kakashi admitted. He could already imagine the scene.

Naruto hmmed, not at all bothered. He will keep it a secret until the chunin exams, and if Sasuke finds out before that, it's not like he could do anything. Sasuke could throw all the tantrum he wants; he would never be able to learn the flying thunder god, _ever._

"It's not like Sasuke can do anything. The amount of understanding of fuinjutsu, chakra theory along with the dimension of space time was just unreal. He won't be able to make it beyond just level 7 fuinjutsu. Also, space-time is a very rarely studied branch of ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. I very much doubt the Uchiha library has any research materials related to that. I was lucky my father had done his research so thoroughly", he shrugged.

Kakashi nodded; he would hate to see, even though it was inherently and incredibly selfish of him, his sensei's legacy fall into someone else's hands other than his son.

He got up, using the crutches Tazuna was able to find him last night. "C'mon, let's get some breakfast."

They arrived inside to find Sasuke and Sakura already at the table, surprise in their eyes when they saw Naruto and Kakashi entering together. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but thankfully kept silent.

Tsunami was mildly surprised, "I was just coming to see if you two were out there, Kakashi-san, Naruto-kun."

Kakashi smiled, "We were just enjoying the morning air outside, Tsunami-san. It's quite peaceful."

Tsunami smiled and gestured to the table, "Please sit, breakfast is ready."

After everyone's breakfast was over, Kakashi took his squad outside, into the forest to train.

"Ok, training will begin now! You will learn chakra control exercises so you don't waste chakra in excess while performing jutsus. This exercise is one of the basics, so you have to master it, no matter what." He observed their reactions closely.

Sasuke had a….. predictably disappointed expression on his face. He was hoping that Kakashi would teach them powerful jutsus, but he conceded the fact that basics were important to master. There was, undeniably, a small amount of curiosity on his face.

Sakura was also curious, but she was more confused than she was disappointed. She didn't exactly know what Kakashi-sensei was trying to teach here, so she just waited until he explained.

Naruto….well, he looked supremely bored of Kakashi. The one-eyed cyclops found his right eye twitching at the distinctly unimpressed look Naruto was giving him. Sasuke was looking faintly amused at the looks Naruto was sending to Kakashi.

"You're going to teach us tree walking, aren't you?" the deadpan in his voice was unmistakable.

Kakashi sweat dropped. _'This could be trouble. Naruto already knows how to walk on vertical surfaces. I could get him started on water walking, but then Sasuke and Sakura might get the impression that I am favoring Naruto'_, he thought as he tried to figure a way out.

But Naruto and Sasuke were starting to get impatient. Naruto spoke up, "I already know tree walking, sensei." This revelation caused Sakura and Sasuke to stare at him, one with confusion and the other with a twinge of jealousy.

Kakashi mentally sighed, _'No use hiding now.'_ "And before you ask, I know water walking as well. Remember where I was standing after pushing Zabuza back?"

Kakashi's memory was jolted as he suddenly remembered jumping in between Naruto, who had his kunai out coated in wind chakra and Zabuza, who was just a moment away from beheading his student. Naruto was standing on water.

'_Is he deliberately making this worse for me?' _Kakashi thought. Sasuke walked up to Naruto with a scowl on his face. "When did you learn all this?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him, "What will you do if I tell you?"

Fortunately for Naruto, Sasuke didn't have an answer for this question and with a deeper scowl than before, walked back to his place.

Kakashi, to avoid any further trouble, immediately explained the exercise. "What you have to do", he said while walking up to a tree. "Is to direct your chakra to the soles of your feet", he put a put onto the bark, "And stick to the surface." He was now walking perpendicular to the ground until he turned onto a branch and looked up, or down, to them.

Sakura looked up at him with awe in her eyes, while looked at him with narrowed eyes. Probably thinking about how this will make him stronger, Naruto mused.

Kakashi threw two kunai in front of Sasuke and Sakura, "Get to it, then." As Sakura and Sasuke picked up the kunai and walked away to a tree, Kakashi slowly walked down to Naruto, who was simply looking at him. "What do you plan on doing?"

Naruto said, "I'm currently working on two jutsus that I took from the shinobi library. I'm planning on mastering them before tomorrow night."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow, "Nobody can master two elemental jutsu in span of a day, you know."

Naruto shrugged, "This 'nobody' that you speak of, can't use shadow clones like I can, sensei."

Kakashi's visible eye widened, "You know the secret of _Kage bunshin?_"

Naruto smirked, "Figured it out a long time ago, sensei. Now if you don't mind, I'll be training. Try to keep Sasuke away from me if you can." With that, he flash stepped away, leaving a gaping Kakashi.

XXXXXXX

Naruto found out that Kurama had hit bullseye on the analysis of both the jutsus. He created forty clones, dividing them into two groups to practice while he tested the memories of last night himself.

He was able to reduce the time required to form the compressed, explosive ball of air, but it took the clones the better part of four hours to reduce the time required to form the high pressure inside him to launch the ball off at high speeds.

At the end of five hours, he was panting, sweating flowing down like waterfall on his naked upper body. All his clones were dispelled, including the ones practicing the suiton jutsu, just to return him the chakra needed for one last try at the jutsu, before he fell to chakra exhaustion.

Naruto had his hands on his knees, trying to get his breathing to get normal. Once he had, he wasted no more time in thinking. Speeding through the hand seals, he mentally shouted _'Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu!' _

He expelled a compressed ball of air from his mouth at great force at a tree. His satisfaction knew no bounds when the ball exploded on the bark, blowing away a large section of it and making the tree fall.

He chuckled tiredly, falling on his back. _'Man! These elemental jutsu sure are tiring! Hey Kurama, would you mind replenishing my reserves just enough so I can walk? I would rather not eat the soldier pill I have."_

Kurama's chakra rushed into his system, though not so much that he went into a rage or was full of energy again. He groaned as he sat up, putting on his t-shirt and jacket. He walked back to the house, thoughts of tasty food filling his mind.

He walked across a clearing when he heard the sound of bark exploding. Curious, he walked towards it and had to suppress the chuckles in him.

Sasuke was tree climbing….and falling off. Naruto could see with the many slashes on the bark that showed Sasuke had improved much in just one day, but he was nowhere near the top.

Naruto would have moved away if it wasn't for Sasuke discovering him and calling out, "Naruto? Is that you?"

Naruto turned around, "Yep."

Awkward silence descended upon them as Naruto waited for Sasuke to speak while Sasuke did not know _what _to speak. Naruto, tired of the silence, made to walk away when Sasuke called him out. And dare he think that he was…hesitating and nervous?

"Um….well…"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, _'It's rare for him to come to talk to me. Especially that he's hesitating.'_

Sasuke glanced away, a faint blush on his cheeks and voice hesitating, "You said you have mastered this exercise before, right? C-can you g-give any tips?"

Naruto was inwardly laughing with Kurama at how awkward Sasuke looked while asking him. _'As much as I hate to say this, he looks more normal in his usual, arrogant self.'_

On the outside, he smiled and walked to Sasuke, putting a hand on his shoulder. Sasuke looked surprised by this, even when he heard Naruto speak, "You know, you could save a lot of trouble for yourself if you just asked instead of demanding." Amusingly, the faint blush on his face was instantly replaced by his regular scowl.

Naruto spoke up before Sasuke, "But I will help you. You know, out of the goodness of my heart", he added sarcastically.

Sasuke reminded himself to calm down, otherwise he wouldn't be able to master this exercise. Hell, even Sakura mastered it before him! He was never in this position of being last, _ever!_

Naruto spoke, holding up a finger, "First, chakra uses your spiritual energy, so don't be tense or angry. Basically, don't allow your emotions to reach an extreme point. Second, relax and concentrate on your energy, and collect a constant amount of chakra at the bottom of your feet. That's all I will tell you."

Sasuke nodded and for the first time in his life, he thanked someone other than his family, "T-thank you."

Naruto simply smiled and turned around, "Though you should save it for tomorrow. Dinner is ready, and it's no use training on an empty stomach."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to train more, but ultimately agreed on dinner and they walked away.

Dinner was a quiet affair. After eating, Naruto helped Tsunami wash the dishes as the others relaxed. Sakura was inspecting a picture on the wall, which had a piece torn off from it. When she enquired about it and how Inari was gazing at it, Tazuna replied that the person whose face was torn off was the hero of this town. The atmosphere in the room was very somber, Naruto noted.

Inari had walked off after that, his mother going after him to console him. Tazuna told them the story of Inari's stepfather, how he was considered a hero by everyone and how Gato killed him. Inari had began to rely on the man to the point where he wouldn't stand up for himself. Gato had him killed to destroy any form of hop in the land and succeeded, traumatizing Inari in the process.

Naruto digested this, and slowly got up from his seat. He had enough of this depressing atmosphere.

Sakura spoke up, "Where are you going, Naruto?"

Naruto didn't turn back as he answered, "I've got some unfinished training to do." That was all he said before the door was gently shut.

Sakura turned towards Kakashi, "What's up with him?

Kakashi shrugged.

XXXXXXX

**[Sorry for not putting up this part earlier. The timeline is same though, Zabuza wakes up after a few hours of the fight]**

The mysterious nin had taken Zabuza to a small house far away and took him inside, placing him onto a bed.

"I will have to remove the bandages so he can freely cough up the blood, if he has any to cough", he mused, his hand reaching to pull down the bandages. A rough hand suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"I can do that myself, Haku."

Zabuza opened his eyes, which were quite bloodshot. He sat up, painfully groaning. He reached behind him to take out the senbon in his neck, small squirts of blood coming out as he pulled them roughly.

"Please don't pull them out like that Zabuza-sama or you will really die", Haku commented with a light voice, which failed to convey his seriousness.

Zabuza grunted as he laid on his back, "You're as vicious as ever, Haku."

Haku watched his master lay on the ground. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke up, "How will we face them next time, Zabuza-sama?"

Zabuza got a murderous look in his eyes, "Next time", he growled out, more to himself than Haku, "I'm taking away that sharingan from that damned monkey!"

**Author's note: I have some people to address this time.**

**Guest alex: Hey pal, I found your nose. It was in my business. If you have got something to say to me, say it after getting a legit identity on the website. No one is foolish enough to use their real name as a guest on any website. It just gives you an excuse to hide, and those type of people are cowards. You don't like my story? Aw, what a shame. I'll pencil in a time to cry about it later. Right now, I'm busy enjoying my life. Hate my story and me? Join the club! There's a weekly meeting at the corner of fuck you street and kiss my ass blvd. By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you…blocked and deleted. You may kiss my ass. All you managed to convey through your review is what a bully you are in real life.**

**To the guest who thinks my story is juvenile: I think you've got me confused with someone who actually gives a shit. My story is an acquired taste. Don't like it, acquire some taste. Let me put it this way; if I had a bucket of water and you were on fire, I'd drink the water. I'm an author who, by your message, conveyed five-year old mentality in his fourth story. What does that say for you who **_**doesn't have a SINGLE story? **_**Your level of mentality is so low I can't even see it from where I am. Let's talk when you catch up with me, shall we?**

**aratakasugatrinity7: No offense pal, but you are somehow thinking this happens in a real world. This is simply a fiction, MY fiction to be specific. And anything I say goes.**

**This is a message for everyone who read this story from now on. Just because there is an option for you to review doesn't mean you can write down anything. If you are a reader, you can write down some tips and suggestions for the writer. Same for fellow writers. Discouraging anyone without reason means you've got some insecurities. DEAL WITH THEM YOUSELF! DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON US! If you want to write something, write something positive to either encourage or to give tips and suggestions to make us writers better. **

**I haven't reported any review for abuse yet, but if this continues, I will not hesitate to do so. And I will enjoy while doing it. In addition to that, I will publicly call you out like the above mentioned people. This is my final warning to haters: **_**Keep your hated and goddamn comments to yourself and BACK. OFF.**_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**Author's note: So many reviews! And all of them positive! I feel like I made a difference in the last chapter. I will address the guests first. To the one who said Naruto is forming rasengan inside him: I guess you could look it that way. It also works for my story; it serves as a foundation for Naruto until the time he actually starts training rasengan. Good point, though.**

**F0G21: Thank you for your comments, and I can feel where you are coming from. Sometimes, when I find a really good story, this feeling surfaces. The feeling that something interesting has popped up in your monotonous life.**

**Helrio uzugaku: Very fascinating and interesting point. I read the chapter in which the FTG is explained and I have to commend that author. He managed to merge real world science with anime science! Anyway, I enjoyed reading the theory. Thank you for that and if you do find something similar, do enlighten in the reviews.**

**Otsutsuki no yami: You make an excellent point. I had almost forgotten about how the civilians will take control after the invasion. It made me think of a way to make Hiruzen survive and as such, you have my sincere thanks. **

**Onto the story!**

**P.S: This chapter will be long. Consider it a bonus for being nice.**

Zabuza was resting on a cot with a blanket over him. He did not like the fact that he had lost to Kakashi. That damn sharingan! He hated its abilities, copying off the hard work and dedication he had put into learning his jutsu in a simple blink. His fists clenched in anger, he could not wait to tear that eyeball out and stomp on it. Moments later, a short man dressed in a business suit and two samurais as bodyguards entered the room and went over to where Zabuza was.

"So the terrifying _demon of the mist _is crippled after facing a few kids and a ninja. I don't think I'm getting my money's worth when it comes to paying you, Zabuza. Perhaps I should just kill you and spare myself the pain of losing any more money", the short man sneered at the bed resting nin.

Gato walked over to Zabuza and reached out to strangle him when a figure appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his wrist, before ruthlessly twisting it.

"You will not harm Zabuza-sama. I won't allow it", came the hard voice of Haku. He twisted Gato's wrist further to just before the point of breaking it to drive his point home. Gato shrieked in pain and fell to his knees.

"Hands off our boss!" One of the samurai took a step forward when Haku grabbed a kunai and threw it at them. The samurai dodged it as it got buried in the wall behind them.

Seeing them distracted, she pulled out two of her senbon and threw it precisely at a point in both of their arms that it was rendered immobile.

The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as Haku whispered with deadly intent, "I missed your vital points on purpose, so don't test me."

Gato snarled as he got up to his feet after Haku released him, "Insolent brat! You and Zabuza had better finish the job I gave you, or there will be consequences!" With that, he exited the house, followed by his bodyguards whose arms were still immobile.

"You know, you didn't have to do that for me. I could have taken care of it myself if it came to that", Zabuza commented as he fingered the kunai in his hands under the bedsheet.

"I was aware of that, Zabuza-sama. But as your tool, I will always protect my master in any circumstance", Haku said with a smile. Zabuza sighed, "In any case, I will be back to full strength in three more days. And when I am", his voice turned murderous, "Kakashi will die!"

XXXXXXX

After getting outside, he walked to the spot he was training in since morning. _'There's something I don't get. His father was killed, and while that is obviously the cause of grief, why hasn't Inari moved on?' _Naruto asked Kurama as he neared the training spot.

Kurama bluntly pointed it out, **'Not everyone moves as fast as you do, Naruto. While you quickly moved on from a weakling to making yourself stronger, you are one of the few who can do it that way. Majority of the people are afraid to let go of the grief, afraid that they will lose the connection that binds them to the person who they held close.'**

Naruto took his time understanding what Kurama told him. He knew that whenever a person lost their one of their close ones, they tended to hold on to that feeling for a long time.

But it never worked in Naruto's favor; holding onto despair. Instead, he made a choice on what to do about it. Every time when he fell down and had difficulty in finding a reason to get up, he would forcefully shake himself out of that state and willed himself to get up. Simply because he had no reason to stay down either. The purpose of life is to keep moving and staying down in one spot defied that very purpose.

Reaching the spot, he took a deep breath. With Kurama's help and dinner, Naruto had replenished a little less than two-thirds of his reserves. He was thankful for the fact that every time he spent chakra and replenished it, his reserves would grow, just by a little. At one instance, it won't even be noticeable. But in the long run, it would be beneficial.

He made a half ram and forty clones appeared, smokeless and soundless. The clones divided themselves into two groups of twenty as before and awaited their orders.

Naruto thought for a minute, and spoke up, "Twenty of you will work on the fuuton jutsu we learned today. However, I don't considered it mastered until I've managed to perform it perfectly with just one hand seal, considering how strong my affinity is." Th group on the right nodded and flash stepped away to a new location.

Naruto turned to the remaining group, "I will be working with you all. We will work on perfecting the suiton jutsu this night. After perfecting it, we will work on mastering it like the fuuton jutsu: with one hand seal."

"Hai!" came the chorus of the group. And so they began their training until all the clones dissipated and Naruto fell unconscious.

XXXXXXX

Haku wore a pink kimono with red cherry blossoms and wooden sandals. He was carrying a basket and slightly humming to himself. While boys of his age would cringe at his choice of clothes, Haku had no such problem. In fact, he wore them just so he could witness the absolute shock on people's face when they figured out he was a boy and not a girl. It was amusing, no, scratch that, it was _always _downright hilarious.

After an hour of walking, he came upon what he was searching for. Kneeling down, he began to pick herbs. His basket was almost half full when he felt something off. Getting up and turning around, he watched the scene with mild amusement and curiosity.

Twenty feet away, he saw the boy his master had fought three days ago. _'Naruto'_, his mind supplied helpfully. From what he had seen in the fight, he was very skilled, both in body and mind. He knew how to perform elemental jutsu, which his master had told him that no genin is capable of. His use of them, incorporating them into his tactics, such as when he beat Zabuza's clone.

Granted, that clone only held one-tenth of the original's power, the feat was nothing short of impressive. And he had come up with a strategy to free his sensei, on the fly and had to land two hits on Zabuza.

This boy was extremely dangerous.

The boy was laying down, limbs spread away from the body. He was not even aware of the birds that had taken perch on him. Haku had an internal debate: he could either quietly collect his herbs now and leave, or he could kill him and save some trouble later on.

He stretched his arm towards Naruto's throat, silently deciding to kill him now and swiftly, to spear him the pain.

"I would advise against that."

Haku jumped back in surprise and watched as Naruto instantly open his eyes, as if he was not asleep at all. But his slightly puffy eyelids gave it away that the boy had been asleep, but woke up due to feeling his presence.

Naruto took a few moments to shake off the drowsiness from his eyes before turning to address the girl, "Jolting me awake hasn't been pleasant for anyone who has done that."

Haku watched as he kipped up to his feet before working out all kinks in his joints, all the while, completely ignoring his presence.

Naruto worked out the stiffness in his body while simultaneously going over the results of last night's training. The group of clones practicing the fuuton jutsu were able to reduce the number of hand seals to one _and _execute it perfectly.

'_Well, that's one good thing'_, he thought. He and the group of clones practicing the water jutsu had also perfected it. Naruto could now use Suiton: Suidanha (Water style: Water severing wave) perfectly with all five hand seals. In addition to that, he also had the Nidaime's notes on that jutsu to help him shorten it to just one hand seal.

He finally turned to face the girl, who he found was quite pretty. "So, what are you doing here?"

His question snapped Haku out of his trance and he bent down to make it appear he was picking herbs. "I'm picking herbs for a friend. He's quite ill, you see." Haku sincerely hoped his voice did not waver.

Naruto, to his credit, only rose an eyebrow. "Then you might want to avoid that herb. I've read it's quite poisonous", he said, nodding towards the ground.

Haku looked down and an embarrassed blush came over his face. He was going to pick a herb that was more suited to make poison than antidote.

To cover up his embarrassment, Haku decided to introduce himself, "By the way, I'm Haku."

Naruto extended his hand, "Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you, Haku-chan."

Haku inwardly laughed as he imagined Naruto's face when he revealed he was a boy. For now though, "Nice to meet you too."

Naruto gestured to her basket, "Can I help you in collecting those herbs?"

Naruto and Haku collected herbs to fill Haku's basket. "Why are you collecting the herbs so early in the morning, nee-chan?"

Haku replied with a question of his own, "What are you doing here so early in the morning?"

Naruto internally narrowed his eyes at the attempt to avoid the answer, but answered nonetheless, "I was training in the night. Guess I fell unconscious due to exhaustion ."

Haku asked, "So, you are a ninja?"

Naruto nodded with a smile. Haku gave a small worried frown, "But isn't that dangerous? What if you get killed?"

Naruto shrugged, "I may. It comes with the territory. If I die, that means I was meant to, so running away from my death would be futile. If I was meant to die so soon, I would have been killed many times over already."

Haku gave a small sound of understanding, "I see. And why are you training? Aren't you strong enough?"

Naruto shook his head, "I may be strong, but there's always room for improvement. Besides, becoming stronger means I will be closer to becoming Hokage", he ended with a grin.

Haku stared at him for a few moments, then spoke, "You train because you want to be strong enough to protect your precious people, don't you?"

Naruto gazed at Haku with something akin to respect in his eyes. His azures stared into her light brown as he whispered, "Go on."

Haku knew from the moment he gazed into Naruto's eyes that Naruto fully knew what he was talking about. Nonetheless, he spoke, "I believe that you have precious people and you are working hard to grow stronger to protect them. If you have something to protect…..only then you can be truly strong."

Naruto kept his intense gaze on Haku, who returned it without flinching. After a long moment, Naruto smiled and said, "Never have I met anyone before except my jiji who shares my understanding of fighting to protect. You have the most accurate idea of where strength comes from, Haku-chan. You have my respect for that."

Haku smiled and stood up from where he was sitting and picked up his basket. "You will become strong", he stated to Naruto before walking away. Time to reveal his secret.

"Oh and by the way, I'm a boy", he said turning to flash a smile and Naruto. He almost lost it when Naruto's eyes bulged to the point Haku feared they would fall out of his eye sockets.

Naruto couldn't believe it. He thought he was talking to a girl, a very pretty one at that. Hell, even prettier than Hinata! Finally regaining his composure, he narrowed his eyes at Haku, who was barely restraining his laughter, "I bet you do that to everyone just to see their reactions, don't you?"

Haku shook his head, "No comment." That was an answer in itself, Naruto thought as he watched Haku walk away. As he walked away, Naruto allowed his though process to take over.

Haku was obviously not a normal civilian. When Naruto opened his eyes, it was quick, but Naruto had managed to note that Haku had almost taken a fighting stance. The reaction was performed on instinct, which left no doubt that Haku was a fighter, and an experienced one at that.

Second thing, Haku's chakra felt strange to him. While he was still refining his sensing abilities to the point where he could sense people's affinities, he sense the bare minimum. Haku's chakra definitely had water, and something which was rough and sharp at the same time. _'The closest thing to that description is the wind'_, he deduced.

But what did those to add up to? Multiple affinities usually point towards the presence of a bloodline limit.

Before he could continue his thought processes, he sensed Sasuke coming to him. Putting on a smile, he greeted his teammate, "Good morning, Sasuke."

Sasuke grunted in response before saying, "You missed breakfast, Naruto." Naruto blinked in response, then shook his head. He would go back to see if any breakfast was left. He always went crazy on an empty stomach.

He walked past Sasuke, who was warming up with some stretches. Naruto had no doubt the boy was going to put his tips to test while climbing the tree.

Reaching the house, he went inside and found Tsunami washing the plates from breakfast. Hesitating a bit, he called out, "Tsunami-san?"

The woman turned and smiled upon seeing Naruto, "Naruto-kun! You're back!" Her smile turned into a concerned frown, "Are you alright? You were training all night! What if you had caught a cold?"

Naruto shook his head, amused at the notion. He had never been ill in his life, courtesy of having the kyuubi residing in him. "I don't catch a cold, Tsunami-san. I was wondering if you had any leftovers from breakfast?"

Tsunami's face instantly brightened, "Oh right! I do have some leftovers I saved in case you came for breakfast. It explains why it seemed Sasuke-kun ate only a little", the last part was said in a mutter, but Naruto's sensitive ears easily heard it.

"What was that about Sasuke, Tsunami-san?" He enquired ever so politely.

Tsunami explained, "Sasuke-kun seemed to eat only a little of the breakfast. When I asked him he said that you would probably be late for it, so he was saving it for you."

Naruto blinked twice at that. That was probably the kindest thing Sasuke had ever done for him. _'Then again, I gave him the tips to master tree walking. He must have saved breakfast just to get even'_, Naruto thought, knowing extremely well that Sasuke hated to be indebted to anyone. Now usually, saving breakfast for someone was not that big of a deal, but since it was coming from Sasuke, Naruto would call it even.

Sitting down at the table, he swiftly ate everything that Tsunami laid out for him. While not nearly enough to get him full, it was more than enough for him to call it a satisfactory meal.

He finished his meal and washed his plate, easily ignoring Tsunami's protests. Stretching his senses, he found that Kakashi and Sakura were upstairs. He had already seen Tazuna in the room next to the dining room, so he thought that Kakashi was probably going to have Sakura guard him today.

'_Well that won't do'_, he scowled as he headed upstairs. He opened the room where he sensed Kakashi's chakra and saw that they were both ready to head out. They both blinked when they saw him.

"Naruto? You're back?" Sakura dumbly asked.

Naruto scowled deeper, "Very astute observation, Sakura", he commented, sarcastically, of course.

Sakura blushed a little at being embarrassed by him. Naruto turned towards Kakashi, who was looking vaguely amused. "Kakashi-sensei, can I guard Tazuna-ossan today?"

Kakashi rose an eyebrow at the new suffix, but did not say anything. Thinking over, he thought that having Naruto guard Tazuna was an excellent choice. Naruto was the strongest of his genin, and was easily able to hold himself against Zabuza long enough to escape. He didn't need to worry about him for another three days, unaware that the man would recover in just one more day. Also, Naruto had an excellent way of retreating should the situation gets worse. He answered, "I don't see why not. Have you completed the training that you were doing last night?"

Naruto nodded. Kakashi nodded in approval, before turning to Sakura, "Sakura, you are with me and Sasuke today. Naruto, you will guard Tazuna today. However", he paused and frowned as an uneasy feeling settled in his stomach. He didn't know why, but he trusted his gut feelings. "You will return two hours early today. I have a feeling we will be facing Zabuza much sooner than three days later."

Naruto frowned but nodded. He would keep lookout for any trouble while Tazuna worked. His danger sense would come in extremely handy in that field.

'**Don't forget about your training'**, Kurama reminded him sternly. Naruto nodded absently as he changed his clothes into an identical set and restocked his hip pouches from his sealing scroll. After double checking that he was ready, he quickly exited through the window and briskly walked to the front where he found Tazuna waiting.

Tazuna looked surprised at his presence, "You will guard me today, Naruto?" When Naruto smiled and nodded, Tazuna chuckled, "Well, it looks like I have nothing to be afraid of. Now, let's go already! I'm late!"

Naruto held up a hand, "Wait a minute, Tazuna-ossan. I'll back back in a moment." With that, he flash stepped away at his highest speed to last night's training spot. Wasting no time, he created created ninety shadow clones. The whole clearing was full of them in mere moments.

"Thirty of you will work on mastering the suiton jutsu we perfected last night. The rest of you, divide yourself into groups of thirty each and practice on learning and perfecting the two suiton jutsu I copied from Kakashi in the fight against Zabuza", he commanded his clones.

All of them nodded as one and divided themselves, but Naruto was already gone. Appearing beside Tazuna so fast that the man yelped in surprise.

Naruto spoke as if he had not noticed, "I have a solution for your late problem, Ossan." Not waiting to hear any protests, Naruto picked Tazuna up in a fireman's carry and flash stepped away, the man's cries echoing into the distance.

Appearing on the bridge in just ten minutes, Naruto set Tazuna down, who looked a little green. "…Next time, give me a warning before you do that."

Naruto blinked innocently at that, causing Tazuna's eyebrow to violently twitch. But he sighed and walked away to start today's work, grumbling about brats who are way too fast. Naruto only smiled and sat down, intent on working on his sensing abilities. This way he could train and keep a look out for danger as well.

While he stretched his senses as far he he could, he reflected on what he saw on the way to the bridge. The town was barely alive, with all its people caught in the jaws of poverty. It was not a sight he wanted to see again. Children begging on the streets, even fighting among themselves for food.

Naruto kept his senses active the whole time, trying and partially succeeding to make it second nature to him, something that would keep running in the background by itself while he focused on the more important tasks. Overall, it was an uneventful day, for which Naruto was thankful for. His clones had disappeared sometime in the afternoon, with good news.

Suiton: Suidanha was now considered mastered, as Naruto's clones were able to reduce the number of hand seals to one. Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu (Water style: Giant vortex jutsu) was surprisingly easy to learn and perfect, considering it was a high A-rank jutsu. It helped that it had only eighteen hand seals. He would work on mastering it when he returned to Konoha, when there was no threat.

Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu (Water style: Water dragon jutsu) was something he'll work on later. That jutsu was incredibly complex, consisting of forty four hand seals and requiring an extreme amount of chakra. While chakra amount was not a problem for him, he wanted to be cautious while using it so he did not waste a single drop of chakra while executing it.

He took Tazuna home, via flash step. They were just five minutes early of the assigned time Kakashi had given them. Going inside, he found Tsunami preparing dinner. "Hello Tsunami-san."

The said woman turned, surprise in her eyes. "Tou-san, Naruto-kun, you are quite early today."

Naruto shrugged, "Kakashi-sensei's orders. Anyway, can you please tell me how long before dinner is ready?"

Tsunami smiled, "It will be ready in twenty minutes, Naruto-kun."

Naruto nodded and walked outside, deciding to have a little fun. Walking over to where Sasuke was, he was not surprised to note the boy was easily sticking to the bark of a tree. _'Time for some torture'_, an unholy glint entered his eyes.

"Sasuke!" He called out. Seeing the boy look at him, he motioned him to come to him, which he did. "How about some training?"

Moments later, Sasuke was standing on the side of a tree, a scowl on his face. "What kind of training is this, dobe?" Naruto made a half ram sign, causing five shadow clones to appear, as well as causing Sasuke's scowl to become deeper.

He greatly envied Naruto's ability to make shadow clones, and that too in no small quantity. He hated to admit it, but Naruto could spam more clones than he could make regular ones, the ones that are an illusion. He had demanded Naruto once to tell him the secret to shadow clones. Naruto had scoffed at him and bluntly told him that he had no intention of doing that. Besides, shadow clones require a lot of chakra, something Sasuke didn't have to spare.

He may not have his sharingan, but once he had it, he had every intention to copy Naruto's jutsus. But the problem was, for a sharingan to successfully copy a jutsu, all the hand seals must be performed. Sasuke had noticed that almost all of the jutsus he had seen Naruto executing, they were done with only one or two hand seals. The shadow clone jutsu was done only with a half ram, which meant Sasuke could not copy any of them. He was not an idiot; Sasuke knew that jutsus have multiple hand signs, which indicated Naruto was highly proficient in performing them with only one or two.

Quelling his frustration, he focused on what Naruto was saying. He had a very innocent look on his face, something that did not bode well. "The rules of this training are very simple. You have to remain stuck to the tree and not fall on the ground", Naruto said, choosing his words carefully. There was a loophole in what he said, but he was curious if Sasuke could read in between the lines.

Sasuke scoffed, "Is that all? Then this will be easy." However, he was suddenly forced to dodge the shuriken that almost cut him. He was given no time to recover as a hail of shuriken came towards him, forcing him to dodge like his life depended on it.

Naruto grinned savagely as his shadow clones gave Sasuke no time to rest. He saw Sasuke almost fall onto the ground, but he barely recovered in time. Deciding to give the guy some inspiration, he called out, "I don't see how this is easy for you Sasuke! You are barely clinging onto the tree! And you've got three cuts, which means you are dead three times over!"

Absently creating five more to replace those whose shuriken were finished, he added salt to the injury, "When I mastered tree walking, I could dodge them with my eyes closed!"

That did it for Sasuke. He was already sour about the fact that he was the last one to master tree walking. But he had to admit, this training was good, excellent even. Naruto was forcing his body to make the tree walking almost second nature, so he could concentrate on the more important tasks.

But he did not need to taunt him like that. He growled and concentrated on sticking to the tree first, then worrying about the shuriken. But Naruto gave him no time, forcing him to act on instinct.

Naruto continued this for fifteen more minutes and by the end of that, Sasuke was a sweaty mess, lying flat on the back on the ground. He didn't even have the energy to glare at Naruto, who was looking entirely amused with him.

"You…..son of a….", he wheezed out. Naruto shook his finger at him as if reprimanding a child. "Now now, watch your language. There are children around here." That bastard. He was having too much fun at his expense.

Abruptly turning around, he said, "Dinner's ready. Let's go." He started walking, not waiting for Sasuke.

Dinner was uneventful, the only thing amusing was watching Sasuke eat. The boy had attacked the food with the speed of a snail; he didn't have energy to even eat.

After the dinner, Naruto was sitting at the table as Tazuna happily reported his progress. "The bridge will soon be complete. Though I have to ask, why did you guys stick around even after I lied about the mission?"

Kakashi folded his hands as he thought about the answer. "Not doing right when you know it is right is the coward's way. Those are the teachings of our previous Hokage. That is the way of the shinobi. We don't work just for money."

Inari, who was looking down at his plate, looked at Naruto and immediately wished he hadn't. Naruto had his arms folded across his chest, eyes facing the ceiling and a small smile on his face. He looked completely carefree, as if he had no worries.

Flashbacks of his father triggered inside his mind. Kaiza saving him, protecting him, making him happy. However, those thoughts only brought pain now. Something snapped inside him at that moment.

Slamming his hands on the table, he stood up on his chair. It was enough to bring all the attention in the room towards him. But didn't care, he had had enough of Naruto's carefree/indifferent and bored attitude.

"Why are you trying so hard when you will only fail? You can't beat Gato's men even if you keep training! No matter how hard you try, weak people always lose to the strong ones!" Though it addressed all the ninjas in the room, somehow, everyone felt that Inari was only shouting at Naruto.

Naruto leaned on the table, chin on his hands and expression vaguely confused. "It seems you are confusing us with the weak people kid", he said, his confusion from earlier gone.

However, Inari was on a roll. "Shut up! It pisses me off when I watch you! You're always fooling around and having fun! You don't know a thing about suffering or how hard life is for people like us! You'll only end up getting killed!" Tears were streaming by the end of his shouting.

Kakashi had tensed up during Inari's shouting. To say Naruto doesn't know suffering…it wasn't possible to be more wrong. He expected Naruto to lash out and prepared to defend Inari, but nothing happened.

Naruto was sitting there as if nothing had happened. There wasn't a silver of rage on his face. However, inside his mind, a storm was raging. His emotions were going wild. But he had to control them, push them towards a temporary goal.

This kid needs a reality check.

Keeping his voice even, he spoke, "You know, you're exactly right." Kakashi looked at Naruto with surprise. That was the last thing he expected Naruto to say.

"The strong will always defend the weak. Gato, and by extension his organization, are weak. Nothing but a bunch of cowards who pick on people who can't out up a fight. They can only win against those who don't have the will to fight back. Against us trained shinobis, they are nothing." A dangerous look crossed his face, a look that even Sasuke and Kakashi got terrified of a bit, "We aren't weak. Don't lump us in the same category as you." He scoffed disgustedly and turned his head away, "We're nothing alike."

Inari cried harder as he glared even more heatedly at Naruto, "I'm glad we're not alike! I'd hate to be like you! You don't even have a care in the world! You don't know how hard life can be!"

The tension in the room was thick as everyone stared at Naruto, who for the first time in his ninja career, felt truly angry. His azure blues were as cold as the coldest ice, anger swimming inside them. Though he held back from channeling killing intent, his eyes were just as effective.

The rage in his eyes was enough to put fear inside Inari, whose legs lost strength and was forced to sit down.

"Look at yourself, bitching and moaning about life. Thinking you have it hard", his voice was a whisper, yet it was so thick of rage that terrified his team. While Kakashi felt his rage was justified, Tazuna and Tsunami were wide eyed. They had no idea such a sweet boy as Naruto held so much rage inside him.

Naruto straightened up in his seat. His mind went back to the children he had seen on the way to the bridge. The ones who he had no doubt were orphans.

"You sit here, with a loving family, with a mother that cooks for you, worries for you and loves you. A grandfather that is building a bridge so this country can be free of Gato's reign." Naruto looked upon Inari with clear disgust, "Some hard life you have!"

Sakura finally had enough of Naruto berating Inari. She felt that Naruto was being unnecessarily harsh on the boy. "Naruto! That's too far-"

That was all she had gotten out before Naruto pinned a fierce glare on her, enforced with killing intent. "Shut! Up!"

Sakura was not so terrified of the killing intent as much as she was of the smoldering rage in his voice. She fell back like a bag of potatoes.

Naruto turned his gaze back on Inari, "I'm willing to bet that you've never stepped a foot outside this house! Never seen the town, where children younger than you have lost their parents, both of them!"

He finally raised his voice, and felt a dark satisfaction in seeing everyone flinch, even Sasuke. "I'm glad I'm nothing like you! I actually decided to do something with my life instead of becoming a crybaby, sitting in a place and whining how hard life is! News flash, there are people out there who have it far worse than you do! You are nothing but a coward who refuses to do something right!"

Even though his words were fueled with rage, his actions were anything but rough. He gently pushed his chair away and headed to the door.

Kakashi asked him, "Naruto, where are you going?"

Naruto did not look back as he replied, "To burn off some of this anger." The door closed gently behind him.

Everyone wondered what caused Naruto to have such a strong reaction to Inari's words. Inari sniffled before he too ran out of the door.

'_That was a disaster, though not entirely unexpected'_, Kakashi thought, putting his book aside for the moment. He followed Inari out to the back, where the boy was watching the ocean.

"Do you mind if I join you?" asked Kakashi, startling Inari.

XXXXXXX

Kakashi sat beside Inari, both looking out at the ocean. "Naruto didn't say any of that out of spite. He's just a bit stubborn is all", Kakashi gently said. While what Naruto had said was the cold, bitter truth, the weight of those words was not something an eight year old can handle. Naruto was different; he had been handling such weight ever since he learned to walk on his feet.

"Naruto is just like you in the regard that he has no father." That was a lie; Kakashi knew that Naruto knew who his father was, but Naruto had no memories of him.

"In fact, Naruto has no memories of his parents at all. They were taken away from him at his birth, so he doesn't understand what parents are. He also had no friends", he explained.

Inari's head lifted up to face Kakashi, confusion in his eyes. Kakashi continued, "However, there wasn't a single moment when I saw him cry or get sulky." That was true; Naruto, until now, had faced the difficulties of life head on and won, becoming stronger after defeating each challenge.

"He is desperate to make people recognize him", Kakashi said. Even now, when Naruto had a bored/indifferent expression on almost all the time, Kakashi could see it in his eyes. The hope that someone will recognize him for who he is was naked for all the world to see. Unfortunately for Naruto, the world acted ignorant.

Kakashi chuckled softly, "He got bored of crying at the world a long time ago." Inari looked down, beginning to understand what Kakashi was trying to say.

Naruto was not born strong, he chose to get strong so he could live his life in a better way. "Naruto knows where true strength comes from, just like your father. In fact, Naruto might be someone who understands you the most", Kakashi said.

Inari was slowly understanding that Naruto might be the only one who was most similar to Inari. Kakashi eye smiled, "The words that he said to you earlier….He's probably told himself that over and over again."

Naruto flashed to his training spot, fists tightly clenched. He felt a little bit of guilt creep over him for shouting at such a young kid, but that feeling was easily overshadowed by the rage he was feeling.

'_THE NERVE OF THAT BRAT! I DON'T KNOW ANY SUFFERING?! HE WON'T LAST A DAY LIVING MY LIFE!' _he raged inside his mind. Kurama kept quiet, but was concerned for his host. He decided to let Naruto burn his anger off by himself, instead of talking it out of him.

Making a half ram sign, causing a hundred shadow clones to appear. He was about to charge in headfirst and eliminate them in the most brutal ways he could think of, but visibly forced himself to think logically. This could be an opportunity for training. It slipped his mind completely that he would be too exhausted to go the bridge tomorrow.

He dispelled half of the clones, causing the other half to look at him in confusion. "We will try to reduce the number of hand seals in suiton: daibakufu no jutsu from eighteen to ten for now." He could reduce them further when he was back in Konoha.

The clones nodded as one and flash stepped to the nearest water body, eager on getting it done by tonight. As he flash stepped after them, he frowned and thought, _'I really should learn the body flicker technique. Flash step is good and all, but it is for short distance purposes, not to mention I can quickly travel long distances, much faster than shunpo. Also, the body flicker is good for traveling quickly where I haven't marked.'_

As he saw the clones working, he considered another idea. _'I wonder if the Nidaime has a scroll written on how to draw water from nothing. It would be incredibly useful in suiton jutsus and survival as well.'_

The whole night Naruto worked on reducing the hand seals of the suiton jutsu. He was able to bring it down to ten, but it left him incredibly exhausted. He was barely able to drag himself back to Tazuna's house and as soon as he was in front of his futon, he fell face first, asleep before even hitting the mattress.

That is how Kakashi found him when he woke up. He woke Sasuke up, who looked at Kakashi who was motioning him to be quiet, pointing at Naruto. Sasuke understood and they both quietly got ready. Heading downstairs, they found Sakura eating breakfast on the table. Her eyes held confusion when she saw a member missing, "Sensei? Sasuke-kun? Where is Naruto?"

Sasuke spoke up before Kakashi could, "That idiot trained so hard that he's knocked out. He won't be coming with us today." Kakashi nodded in agreement. They quickly had their breakfast and stood up, ready to leave.

As they went outside, Kakashi turned to Tsunami, "Please take care of Naruto. He's exhausted himself after training and won't be coming with us today."

Tsunami frowned in concern, "Are you feeling well enough, Kakashi-san?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, "Yeah, I'm good."

Tazuna nodded, "Well then, let's be off." They walked away after that.

XXXXXXX

Zabuza and Haku gazed at the workers on the bridge from their boat. "Now is the time to attack", he murmured as he drew his blade.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and immediately closed due to the brightness in the room. Groaning, he got up and slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust. _'Damn, I trained too much last night'_, he thought. He checked his chakra reserves and winced slightly. They were a little less than half. _'Guess I did push myself too much last night'_, he thought.

'**Oh, you think?'**, Kurama's voice oozed sarcasm. Naruto winced again,_ 'Sorry Kurama. But I was a bit angry last night'_, he defended himself.

Kurama snorted, **'A bit? Brat, you scared the hell out of everyone. A bit is an understatement. I'm proud of you.' **Naruto shrugged and got up, noticing for the first time that the bed around him were empty. Eyes narrowing, he deduced that Kakashi must have decided to let him recover today rather that come with them.

He quickly completed his morning rituals and dressed up. Tying his hair into a neat ponytail, he ran downstairs to the dining room, where Tsunami was washing the dishes. She turned to him and smiled, "Ah, Naruto-kun. If you are wondering where everyone is, your sensei said to let you rest today."

Naruto nodded. He figured as much, however, he could feel somehow that today would be different and as such, he needed to get to the bridge. Reaching into his left hip pouch, he pulled out a small black pill. _'I've got no choice but to eat this'_, he thought as he put the food pill in his mouth.

'_It would allow me to fight three days straight without rest, but I would be left totally exhausted at the end of that'_, he grimaced at the taste. _'It tastes like shit, though.'_

Not even ten seconds after he had swallowed it, he felt his chakra getting replenished to the maximum. Hell, he even felt it expand a bit! His hunger disappeared, making him smirk. _'Time to go'_, he thought, his smirk getting replaced with his neutral scowl.

"Ittekimasu!" he called out as he departed. He had managed to master another level of his resistance seal in one week of training, increasing his raw speed even more. He tree hopped normally, choosing to conserve his energy for the battle he somehow knew will happen. As he crossed a clearing, his eyes landed on something, making him stop. "That's interesting."

Tsunami was cleaning up the kitchen when she heard the sound of the door breaking. Two men with swords came inside and one of them grinned, "Daughter of bridge builder Tazuna, you are coming with us."

Inari heard the noise and saw his mother going with the men. He felt afraid, however, he forced himself to remain strong. _'I will save my kaa-san!' _Flashes of how Naruto called him weak fueled his courage.

Naruto arrived back at the house just in time to see two wannabe samurai rushing at Inari, swords drawn. Wasting no time, he immediately released his seals and flash stepped to Inari, quickly grabbing the mother son duo and flash stepping back just in time too. The swords sliced at the space where he was a moment ago.

The thugs were dumbfounded. "What just happened?" Only then they noticed that Tsunami was gone! They turned around and saw a blonde kid in dark blue clothes, holding Tsunami and Inari a safe distance away. The presence of a hitai-ate beneath his left shoulder confirmed the fact he was a ninja.

Naruto settled Tsunami down cut her ropes. "Tsunami-san, please stay behind me. Inari, good job on keeping them here", he smiled. Inari brightened up at the compliment.

Turning to face the thugs, he adopted the expression when he was dealing with thugs who had no brains. An indifferent expression to convey that he didn't feel threatened at all. It served as an excellent way to piss them off. Every time.

"So Gato sent dumb and dumber to kidnap a woman. I'm not surprised at all." He kept his tone light enough so they would lose their cool.

The one wearing the hat scowled and said, "You are just an incompetent ninja that Tazuna hired, aren't you?"

Naruto pretended to inspect his nails, "Incompetent? I don't know about that…I literally snatched Tsunami-san from you and you didn't even notice."

The one with the eyepatch scoffed angrily and said, "Let's see how you stop us!" With that, both of them prepared to rush at Naruto, intent on slicing him into pieces.

Naruto decided some mind games were in order. Snorting, he pointed his finger towards them, "If anything, you are the ones incompetent. You failed to notice the two clones standing behind you."

As he predicted, the two stupidly turned their backs towards him to inspect behind them. Finding no one, their eyes widened _'He tricked us!' _But it was already too late.

Naruto flash stepped in between them and delivered a flawlessly executed split kick to their heads, easily knocking them unconscious and sending them on the opposite sides of the aisle and down the river. He doubted they would survive.

He suddenly realized that he just performed his first kill. He had just ended another being's life. However, instead of puking his guts out like he thought, he only felt empty. He waited for some terrible feeling that one got after their first kill, but nothing came. And somehow, it made him feel even worse.

Tsunami and Inari watched with growing horror as both men went flowing down the river. They turned to watch Naruto, who only had a blank expression on his face.

Concern grew in Tsunami and she reached up to touch his shoulder, "Naruto-kun…"

Naruto snapped out of his trance and looked at her. Regaining his senses, he gave a serious look to Tsunami. "Tsunami-san, I must get going now." Putting two fingers onto the ground, he easily sensed his team's chakra and two other signatures, one of them very familiar and the other distinctly familiar.

"Zabuza has already arrived on the bridge", he declared, ignoring Tsunami gasp. He had to get there quickly.

Turning to Tsunami, he said, "Go inside the house and lock every door and window. Make sure no one can get inside", he warned her. The mother nodded and immediately went back inside the house.

Naruto turned his gaze in the direction of the bridge. It was good that he had put his _Hiraishin _formula at one end of the bridge. He was gone in a blue flash.

XXXXXXX

Things had escalated on the bridge as soon as the team and Tazuna got there. They had got there to see all the workers bleeding.

"What's this?!" Tazuna exclaimed, rushing up to one of them, the only one who seemed to be awake. "What happened?!"

"A... A monster...", the worker muttered, gritting his teeth in pain, just as a thick mist rolled in.

"Here they come!" Kakashi said as Tazuna backed up, and the ninja took up a defensive formation around him.

"Long time no see, Kakashi," came Zabuza's voice through the mist. "I see you're still with those brats... He's shaking again... poor kid..."

"Where's the blonde one though? He was at least decent than the wimps you have with you now", he taunted.

Sasuke grit his teeth at that. Even when Naruto wasn't here, the enemy still acknowledged him. Kakashi felt a surge of pride at Zabuza's taunt. Naruto was already making waves if a missing nin was acknowledging him.

He replied back, "Sorry, but he's on a separate assignment. You get to deal with us today." There was no need to mention the the assignment was to sleep.

A group of Zabuza's clones surrounded them. Sasuke gave a small grin and put up a brave face, "I'm just excited to see you again."

Kakashi ordered, "Do it, Sasuke."

Sasuke disappeared in a sudden burst of speed and mere moments later, all the Zabuza clones splashed into water.

"Hm... He saw through the water clones," came Zabuza's voice as the mist cleared slightly to show Zabuza and that fake Hunter-Nin standing on the bridge. "It looks like a rival has appeared... eh, Haku?"

"Indeed it does," the Hunter-Nin, Haku, said with a nod.

"But I still stand by my point. The blonde one was way faster than what I just saw," Zabuza said.

Haku then started spinning incredibly fast, moving towards them. Sasuke tensed up and met him in between, his kunai clashing against Haku's senbon.

"I don't want to have to kill you... but you won't stand down, will you?" Haku asked, which made Sasuke scoff.

"Don't be foolish."

"I see... But you won't be able to keep up with my speed the next time. Plus, I've already gained two advantages."

"Two advantages?" Sasuke repeated.

"The first is the water on the ground. And the second is that I have occupied one of your arms. You will now only be able to run from my attacks."

Sasuke's eyes widened along with Kakashi's when Haku started forming seals with only one hand, ending in a half-Ram seal again. The water around them suddenly rose into the air and formed needles, which all flew straight toward Sasuke.

Haku leapt away just in time, but it seemed Sasuke got caught in the barrage. Haku got his answer when he saw Sasuke had jumped up and was throwing shuriken at him.

Haku neatly backflipped to avoid them, but when he looked up again, Sasuke was gone.

"You're pretty slow," came his voice from behind him. "Now you can only receive and block my attacks."

Sasuke slashed at Haku, who blocked with his hand. He almost missed the kunai in Sasuke's other hand and ducked low, right in path of Sasuke's kick, which connected to his mask.

Zabuza couldn't believe it. _'Haku lost in speed?'_

Sasuke couldn't help himself, "Looks like my speed is better than yours."

However, Zabuza quickly recovered and said, "At this rate, you will be defeated Haku. You know that, right?"

Haku got up and formed a strange hand seal, "Yes. We can't have that now, can we?"

All of a sudden, the air seemed to get cold. "Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoushou!" (Secret Technique: Demonic Ice Mirrors) The water on the ground around Sasuke suddenly rose up to form plates of water, which froze and took on an appearance akin to that of a mirror. The mirrors rose up and formed a dome around Sasuke, who looked nervous for the first time in the fight.

Haku moved towards one of them and seemingly _stepped _into it. He appeared in one mirror, but as Sasuke moved to smash it, Haku appeared in every single one of the mirrors surrounding him.

"Well then, shall we begin?" Haku asked. "I'll show you my real speed."

One senbon attack came, then another, and another, all of them too fast for Sasuke to avoid. Screams of pain tore from his throat.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi moved forward to help his student, but Zabuza blocked his way. "I'm your opponent, remember? Your student's a goner, now that Haku has him trapped inside."

Sasuke attempted a _great fireball_, but it was utterly useless. There wasn't even a scratch on the mirror. His screams continued.

Sakura couldn't take the screams anymore, and with a shout of "Sasuke-kun!" moved to help him, completely abandoning Tazuna and leaving him unprotected.

She threw a kunai to him, but Haku came halfway out of a mirror and caught it with ease. "I don't think so," he said.

Sakura paled, "He caught it?!"

"Well, that's what happens when you fail to put the enemy in your equation."

Everyone turned towards the voice coming from the side of the mirrors. However, Haku was too slow to react.

A knee caught him in the chin, easily sending him out of the mirrors. Naruto landed in a crouch, all ready for battle.

Sasuke opened an eye and saw Naruto just outside the dome. "Show off…..," was all he could get out before trying to get some air in his lungs from all the screaming.

Standing up, he assessed the situation. Kakashi was about to engage Zabuza, the fake hunter nin was out of his dome and Sakura had just suffered one of her stupidity bouts. Oh, and Sasuke was trapped.

'_I can work with this.'_

Zabuza was paying attention to how Naruto was assessing them. _'It's that blonde again. He was fast enough to catch Haku off guard, and it looked like he wasn't even trying.' _Eyes narrowing, he turned his attention back to Kakashi.

Haku recognized the boy. _'It's him, from the forest.'_

Apparently the wait got boring for Zabuza, who threw four shuriken at Naruto. Naruto's danger sense activated and he saw them coming in slow motion. Preparing to flip out of the way, he was shocked when four senbon collided with the shuriken.

Everyone had the same thought on their mind. _Why did he save Naruto?_

"Zabuza-sama, please let me deal with this." Haku requested.

Kakashi found himself in a tight spot. Sakura couldn't move from her spot, and if Kakashi moved to help Sasuke, he would leave Tazuna open to Zabuza.

Naruto critically assessed Haku, "I assume you are the one who put this dome up. You have an ice bloodline limit, don't you?"

Haku stiffened, as did Zabuza and Kakashi. "Your brat's smart, Kakashi," Zabuza said to Kakashi, who only narrowed his eye.

Haku spoke, "You are quite perceptive, Naruto-kun. However, you can't help your friend in any way."

Sasuke chose this moment to throw a kunai at Haku, who simply tilted his head out of the way. "I didn't forget about you." Sasuke grit his teeth; this was getting bad, very fast.

Haku turned to Sasuke, "I would have liked for you to just lie there quietly, but I guess I can't expect that. Very well, I will finish-"

That was all he got out before his face met with Naruto's shoe again. He was thrown back almost seven feet by Naruto, who was looking at him like he was an idiot.

"Who turns their face away from an opponent to talk, you idiot?"

However, Haku was not the only one shocked. Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi and Zabuza were thinking along a similar wavelength.

_He was fast enough to catch me off guard the same way, a second time._

_Since when was Naruto so fast?_

_That dobe….I didn't even see him move._

_Well done Naruto. Keep him busy._

_Things are getting interesting…..now that Sasuke-brat might actually have a chance of making out alive._

Haku wasted no more time. Merging back into the mirror, Sasuke had to hold back a groan at what he was about to go through. He was unprepared, however, for Naruto to suddenly appear before him.

Naruto already had a vague idea of what was about to happen and so, he summoned four shadow clones. Taking up a pentagonal position around Sasuke, all five Narutos' mentally called out while making the tiger seal.

'_Suiton: Suijinheki!' _(Water style: Water wall) A wall of water rose before each of the clones from the water beneath their feet, who manipulated it to cover their heads as well.

"Sasuke," Naruto called out in a low voice. Sasuke turned to look at him and saw him keep the tiger hand seal up. "This is only a temporary solution. Whatever he's gonna throw at us-"

"Senbon."

Naruto rose his eyebrows, "Ok, senbon it is. They will pass through anyway then. I want you to be on guard in case he comes out of the mirrors."

As Naruto predicted, senbon came at them from all the directions. Naruto and his clones made their wall as thick as possible. Senbon still passed through, but it was clear that they were not doing as much damage as before. They weren't even dispelling the clones! Haku didn't know that Naruto had enforced them with chakra.

'_I have to destroy those clones,' _he thought.

It was only for a fleeting moment, but Naruto and his clones caught it. It all happened in slow motion; Haku splashed through the wall and swung around a senbon, but Naruto's clones were busy maintaining the wall, so they weren't able to react in time and got dispelled. Naruto himself dodged the senbon with a hair's breadth.

As soon as the wall was down, Haku flashed back into the mirror. "Your defense is meagre. You cannot hope to win against me."

However, Naruto had come up with a way to distract Haku. "Interesting technique, this is. Moves partially into space-time, if I'm not wrong. You can move from mirror to mirror with enhanced speed. Since time is relative to speed, everything must move in slow motion for you," he smirked, hoping to throw Haku off.

Sasuke gaped at the blonde. _'How the hell did he figure that out?'_

Naruto had his own thoughts going, _'He has been maintaining these mirrors for quite a while now. His chakra reserves have to have depleted by now. Time to check.'_

Making a snake seal, he took a deep breathe. _'Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu!' _(Wind style: Wind torpedo technique) A ball of wind shot towards the mirrors and exploded with great force upon contact. Naruto was pleased to see the results.

There was a crack. A big one.

Sasuke's jaw dropped even further, "How did it crack? My fireball couldn't even scratch it!" Naruto decided to ignore him for the moment.

However, Haku reformed the mirror and continued with his assault, this time, aiming at Naruto's vital spots. Naruto smirked and prepared to blow the senbon away. He summoned two clones to guard his back, however, one immediately got dispelled, leaving him open to attack. And since Naruto was in the middle of performing a jutsu, he couldn't make any more clones. Senbon raced towards his unguarded side and he prepared to duck in response to his danger sense.

Sasuke saw how confident Naruto was in this situation. How he never showed any fear, instead opting to instill fear into his opponent's mind, hoping to instill doubt. Seeing Naruto smirk, Sasuke had no doubt the blonde had a plan and it would work. However, seeing senbon racing towards Naruto's unguarded side, something moved in him.

He was able to see them in slow motion. He could see everything with crystal clarity, and he knew what to do.

He jumped between the senbon and Naruto, taking the full force of them. Naruto turned around and his eyes widened on seeing Sasuke take the attack.

Not dropping his guard, he spoke with clenched teeth. "What the hell was that Sasuke? Why did you do that?"

Sasuke was losing consciousness fast, so he spoke, "I…..I don't know. My body just moved on its own. My….my brother is still….out there somewhere. Don't….don't die Naruto," with that, he fell unconscious.

Naruto couldn't check if Sasuke was really dead without dropping his guard, so he was forced to assume the worst case scenario. Sasuke was likely close to death, or was already dead.

Unimaginable anger washed over him, making him tremble slightly. Unknown to him, a layer of extremely dense orange chakra began to cover him. Kurama's voice rang out in his head, **'Naruto! You are drawing on my chakra in your anger! Calm down, or you'll be nothing more than a berserker!'**

Naruto argued back, _'He killed Sasuke! How do you NOT expect me to get angry?!'_

Kurama snarled, **'This is not the time to lose your mind, Naruto! I did not train you to be so weak against your emotions! Control them, flow with them in such a way that they become your weapon against your enemy!'**

The anger in Kurama's voice snapped him out of his anger. Only then he noticed that Haku was still throwing senbon at him, but an orange cloak prevented them from making contact with his skin.

'_Kurama's chakra,'_ he realized.

XXXXXXX

Zabuza and Kakashi both halted at the feeling of the strange chakra. _'What is that chakra? It's too strong to be Kakashi', _Zabuza thought, perplexed at the new presence.

However, Kakashi perfectly recognized the chakra. _'This is bad. I need to end this fast in case the seal has loosened.' _Turning to Zabuza, he spoke, "We're both busy men, Zabuza. How about we use one last move, winner take all, you know?"

Zabuza grinned under his bandages, "Sounds interesting. The faster I kill you, the faster I get paid."

XXXXXXX

Naruto shook his head and refocused on Haku, who was still throwing his senbon. Immediately, a new plan began to form in his mind.

'_Kurama's slowly drawing his chakra back into the seal, which means I won't be protected for long. That hunter-nin is insanely fast, but not that fast that it can't be tracked by me if my danger sense remains activated, or Sasuke's sharingan, which, if I'm not mistaken, allowed him to see the path of the senbon and jumped to protect me. There's no time for exploding tags as well._

'_I have to time it perfectly. If I'm late for even a single moment, he will see through my plan.' _Naruto finished planning and put it in motion.

He took out a kunai, put his _Hiraishin _formula on it and threw it on the ground, at the base of one of the mirrors. He repeated this until the kunai were in a hexagonal pattern. Then he flashed.

Haku was honestly perplexed at what Naruto was trying to do. Those kunai, even if they were wrapped with an explosive tag, would not damage his mirrors. But he would have to finish this quickly; his chakra was starting to get dangerously low.

He doubled his attacks on Naruto, who seemed to be waiting for the attacks to hit him. At the last moment, he seemingly disappeared! Haku's eyes widened as he saw that Naruto was now at a position opposite to his previous position. The scary part was, Haku didn't even see him move! A blue flash was all he saw.

Recovering, he attacked Naruto at his new position, who flashed away again. This continued for a few more times before Haku decided to end it. His chakra was almost exhausted, so he would have to step out and attack Naruto's back as fast as he could.

Naruto was flashing and dodging the senbon with ease due to the slow perception given to him by his danger sense coupled with the speed of Hiraishin. He was playing the waiting game; he knew Haku was close to getting exhausted and he would attack Naruto's back because he no longer had the chakra for a direct confrontation with Naruto, who had yet to feel a drain on his reserves.

Sure enough, his danger sense alerted him that the hunter-nin was exiting a mirror from behind him, attacking his back. This was what he was waiting for. He immediately flashed away to another kunai to his side, watching with satisfaction how the hunter-nin missed him, toppling forward. That was the moment he struck.

Naruto's chakra was incredibly dense, so it augmented his physical traits greatly. He was faster, stronger, agile than majority people of his age. So when Naruto directed his chakra and condensed it into his fist, the force was something that would have sent someone of his size flying a dozen meters away.

His fist made perfect contact with the hunter-nin' s cheek. Coupled with the momentum of his flash step, Naruto slammed Haku into the mirror, breaking it like it was nothing more than a hard sheet of paper.

Haku was sent flying back from the force of the fist, all his mirrors shattered. He could not believe Naruto was this strong. To have a way to avoid his senbon within the dome, chakra dense enough to crack his mirrors. He was pretty sure his jaw was cracked, although it would have been broken if not for his mask, which was now shattered. It was a miracle he wasn't knocked out.

Naruto looked with shock at the hunter-nin who was now revealed to be Haku. He couldn't help but feel hurt at how a person who he thought understood what Naruto stood for so perfectly would hurt his comrade.

Haku gazed at Naruto with a blank expression, "Why won't you kill me, when I've killed your friend?"

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, who resembled more a pin cushion that a human. A brief surge of anger hit him, causing him to punch Haku straight in the gut. The force behind the hit knocked Haku down to his knees, but he knew Naruto had held back.

Fighting the pain, he spoke, "Was he not an important person to you?"

Naruto thought back to his meeting with Haku in the forest, where Haku had told him how had an an important person, and how he would protect him.

"Zabuza's your important person, isn't he?" He asked softly. Though he already knew the answer.

Haku nodded in agreement. He then proceeded to tell him how he had important people other than Zabuza a long time ago. How his father tried to kill his mother, how he tried to kill Haku because of his bloodline. Haku had killed his own father in defense. He had suffered through the most terrible feeling there was; the feeling that no one wanted you.

Then Zabuza found him, raised him. Haku felt like he was Zabuza's most trusted tool. "Please kill me."

XXXXXXX

Zabuza had Kakashi where he wanted him. Kakashi had no way of knowing where Zabuza was, but Zabuza was aware of everything that Kakashi was doing.

Or so he thought.

Kakashi apparently had another trick up his sleeve. He summoned his ninken had track Zabuza through the mist. The dogs had trapped Zabuza in his place, allowing Kakashi the time to execute his one original move, the Lightning cutter.

Raikiri.

He held electricity in his hands, causing Zabuza's eyes to widen at the sheer amount of chakra Kakashi was exuding. _'That thing can cut through anything!'_

Kakashi ran at Zabuza, intent on finishing this once and for all.

Naruto found this so wrong, he just wanted to leave Haku alone. But it was evident, the pain that Haku carried. Zabuza was most like dead now, which meant Haku had no one left in the world. Again.

'**Just kill him Naruto, if only to spear him the pain,'** Kurama's voice came through. Naruto gripped his kunai so tightly that his knuckled had turned white. Nevertheless, he prepared himself.

He channeled pure, wind chakra through his kunai, causing it to resemble a blue dagger. _'May you find peace in your death, Haku,'_ he thought as he flash stepped to Haku, his kunai going for his heart.

However, there is a saying that you always know when the people important to you are in danger. Perhaps that was the reason that Haku was able to grab Naruto's arm in mid swing.

Naruto was more than shocked, he was stupefied. How the hell did Haku grab his arm?!

It was then he paid attention to his senses. Kakashi's chakra had taken the form of pure electricity. _'Wait, if Kakashi-sensei is still using jutsu, then that means Zabuza is still alive!'_

As is to confirm his thoughts, Haku spoke, "Sorry Naruto-kun, but I can't die just yet." Making some one-handed seals, he disappeared in a shunshin.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed before he too, flash stepped to Kakashi's location, just in time to see Haku getting impaled by Kakashi, whose handed was coated in electricity.

Zabuza took this opportunity to swing his blade at Kakashi, who jumped back. Closing Haku's eyes, he proceeded to brutally disable Zabuza's arms by piercing them with kunai.

"Well well, it seems the demon of the mist is nothing more than a failure."

All of them turned to face the owner of the voice, who was revealed to be a rather short man. "Sorry Zabuza, but you die here. You see, hiring official ninjas costs a lot of money, so I hired a missing ninja like you. If you ninja had killed each other, it would have saved me the trouble and the money."

A nasty smirk crossed Gato's face, "If you ask me, you're nothing more than a cute devil."

**[Sorry for the skip, but everything after this is the same until Zabuza collapses]**

One of the thugs called them out, "Hey, don't think you bastards are off the hook! You just killed our only source of revenue!" "Now we will have to attack the town and steal all the valuables!" The other thugs roared their agreement.

Naruto turned to Kakashi, "Sensei, do you have any way to take care of them all?"

Kakashi shook his head, an angry sigh escaping his lips, "No. I used up too much of my chakra."

Naruto grit his teeth. _'I could end this in mere moments, but I risk exposing the flying thunder god, damn it!' _He took a glance towards Sakura and Tazuna. Sakura had her head buried in Sasuke's chest and was sobbing her heart out. Just seeing Sasuke's body lying there unmoving caused his anger to resurface.

Gritting his teeth, he turned to Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, I want you to go back."

Kakashi stared at Naruto, trying to figure what his student was up to. "Tazuna-san is going to see it anyway, but please tell him not to mention it in front of our team. And prevent Sakura from gazing ahead. Block her view if you have to," he said with utmost seriousness.

Kakashi's eyes widened, "Naruto, don't tell me….you are going to use-"

"Yes," Naruto cut him off sharply. "Now back off," he almost commanded him. Kakashi though, only nodded and backed away, intent on following Naruto's instructions. If Naruto didn't want his team to know of his ace in the hole just yet, he would respect that. But Tazuna needed to be warned to keep quiet.

After Kakashi backed away, Naruto faced the thugs, a serious look on his face. One of the thugs laughed, "Oh, you think you can stop us alone, brat?" Another one spoke up, "Hell, at this point, even just one of us would be able to take you out!" The thugs laughed at that.

Heart pounding, he tried to not let his nervousness show. He was about to end the lives of almost a hundred people **[Just go with it please]**. Steeling himself, he took out a kunai and put his formula onto it.

The thugs noticed it and laughed even harder. "Brat, you can't even take one of us down with that!" However, Naruto ignored that and threw the kunai.

'_Ninpo: Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu!' _The one kunai became hundreds and were scattered on the ground between Naruto and the thugs.

The one standing on the front snorted, "Looks like you missed, kid." They charged with a roar after that, each one having some weapon with them.

Naruto took two of his kunai in his hand and channeled wind chakra, making them look like a blue dagger. He took a stance and a deep breath and waited for all the thugs to enter the area of the marked kunai. When they did, he unknowingly said the phrase his father was feared for, "I'll end this in a flash."

What followed was a total massacre. Kakashi's eyes were blown wide after hearing Naruto speak. He only saw blue flashes, too fast for his sharingan to keep track of.

Naruto went into a trance as he flashed again and again through the thugs like a hot knife through butter. He wasn't even thinking; his body was moving by instinct alone as all the thugs were taken down in less than five seconds. He was going so fast that not even the droplets of blood were fast enough to land on him.

Kakashi didn't know what to think or feel as he saw his student accomplish a feat that no one but his sensei could do. On one hand, he felt like his chest was going to burst with how much proud the man was of his student. On the other hand, he felt somber that Naruto already had so many deaths on his hands. So he settled for middle ground; he just relaxed as much as he could, knowing it was all over. He then turned to Tazuna to relay Naruto's words.

Naruto stood in the middle of it all, not even covered by blood. He was in a haze. So many people died by his hand in just one day alone. Even though his chakra reserves were only depleted by a quarter, he felt more exhausted than ever. His legs lost the strength to remain standing and he sank to his feet, a blank expression on his face. He didn't know what to feel except _so much guilt_.

Tazuna saw Naruto standing in front of all the thugs, no sign of fear on his face. But fear had gripped his heart; he almost expected Naruto to get killed and almost shouted at the boy to come back, but before he could do that, Naruto disappeared in a blue flash.

Tazuna witnessed with growing horror how Naruto annihilate all the thugs with seemingly no effort. In just five seconds, all of Gato's thugs were dead, blood spilling from various places on their bodies. He almost didn't hear Kakashi call his name.

"Tazuna-san," Kakashi called out to the shell shocked man. Tazuna turned his head to face Kakashi, who spoke in a low whisper, "Please listen to me. You _must _keep quiet about what you saw. No one, I mean _no one_, is to know that Naruto…killed them all," Kakashi struggled for the right word. He looked down to see Sakura still sobbing over Sasuke. For once, Kakashi was glad for Sakura's obsession with Sasuke. He continued speaking, "Not even Sakura is to know." He saw Tazuna about to protest, so he glared at him, _hard_. He kept glaring at the man until he agreed.

He then turned around and slowly walked, weaving his feet between the bodies until he reached Naruto. He knelt down beside the boy, who now had silent tears streaming down his face, finally realizing the weight of what he just did.

Kakashi put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and spoke in a soft voice, "It's okay, Naruto. It's okay to feel like what you are feeling right now after what you just did. I am surprised though, that you didn't puke your guts out, but I would be more shocked to see no remorse on your face. Want to talk about it?"

Naruto turned his teary eyes to Kakashi, "I feel so guilty. I am trying to convince myself that I did it to keep Tazuna and his family safe. That they would have killed us in an instant and won't think twice about it. I feel like a monster," Naruto was full on sobbing by now, sinking until he was sitting between his legs.

Kakashi nodded, "The first time is never easy. Everyone thinks the same thing after their first kill, that they are too cruel to have taken another's life. But as long as you're capable of feeling remorse for your actions, you haven't lost your humanity. We are shinobi, and on missions we have to kill to protect those who can't protect themselves."

Kakashi put his fingers on Naruto's chin and gently made him face him, "But taking the life of a criminal who would kill innocent people without a second thought is not murder. Think of it like this; if we don't do our job right now, the next ones dying won't be the criminals, but their victims."

Naruto's guilt had somewhat subsided after Kakashi's consoling. Kurama too, had whispered some words of comfort, but coming from a demon, they were more along the likes of _you did good, they deserved it _and whatnot. He wiped his tears off and stood up with the help of Kakashi.

A gasp from Sakura caught their attention. Both of them turned around and both of them choked on seeing Sasuke sitting up. He was in pain, judging from his face, but nonetheless, alive.

Naruto gave a small smile at that, a majority of his guilt lessened at the fact that Sasuke's death wasn't on his hands. Kakashi gave a big sigh of relief, "Thank god, he's alive."

Sasuke opened his eyes with much difficulty and saw a mop of pink hair on his chest. He groaned, "Get off, Sakura. It hurts." Sakura gasped and sat up, relieved tears flowing, "Sasuke-kun, you're alive!"

Sasuke sat up with Tazuna and Sakura's help and his eyes widened when he saw the amount of bodies on the bridge, with Naruto and Kakashi standing in the middle of it. His eyes widened, "What happened?"

Naruto and Kakashi were holding their breath, nervous because they didn't know how much Sasuke and seen or heard. However, when Sasuke asked what happened, Naruto practically melted in relief.

Naruto smoothly told a lie, "Well, Zabuza really lived up to his title of the _demon of the mist_. It was a slaughter, man."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, suspecting Naruto was lying. However, when Kakashi supported his claim, Sasuke let the suspicion leave. The sound of rapid footsteps caught their attention. Turning around, Kakashi and Naruto saw the citizens of wave.

Inari quickly ran up to Naruto, "Nii-san! What happened here? Is everyone alright? Are you alright?"

Chuckling tiredly, Naruto fondly riffled Inari's hair. "Everyone is alright, Inari. Though I do need to lie down a bit."

Inari then saw the scene of slaughter for the first time. His eyes widened and he turned to Naruto, "What happened to all of them?!"

Thankfully Kakashi saved Naruto from answering, "They were all killed by Zabuza. You should be thankful to him."

Inari got confused, "But isn't that the guy who was trying to kill jiji?"

Naruto took a deep breath and let it out, "A story for another time, Inari. Right now, we need to rest. All of us do."

**Author's note: Whoo! Longest chapter yet, reaching almost 13000 words! I'm proud of me! Anyways, thank you everyone who left reviews, I really appreciate it. Although one correction, dai sennin kurosaki d Naruto, I know that there is no yellow flash of chakra. But I wanted an element so Naruto doesn't have to remain in his father's shadow. A blue flash serves the purpose quite well. **

**See ya later, readers! **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Author's note: Hey guys! Thank you for your reviews! First order of business, I understand there are some who didn't approve of Naruto using hiraishin in the last chapter, but I have my reasons. Some said that the shadow kunai would have done the job just as efficiently, but I made Naruto use hiraishin because those thugs weren't exactly incompetent and would have blocked the kunai with their weapons. Also, I needed Naruto to go through the entire process of killing so in the future and make peace with what he did so he doesn't hesitate to do what's right in the future in such situations.**

**To the guest who brought up his hair: Don't worry, his hair is still spiky. It's just wrapped up in a ponytail for now. He will change it later.**

**Infinity mask: Even though Naruto knows some very good jutsus, he doesn't have one that could wipe all the thugs in one go. He is still a genin, after all.**

**Douob: Naruto wouldn't have a personal favorite **_**now. **_**I based his attacking style in a way that is versatile. That is, he will do anything to gain advantage in a fight, not just stick to one thing. Also, the great change in plot will come soon. It's Naruto x Temari for a reason, isn't it?**

**Onto the story!**

**P.S: This chapter has some really crazy, unbelievable bullshit, so please bear with it.**

The people of the town had rejoiced on knowing that Gato was finally dead and Tazuna could continue building his bridge in peace. The team returned to Tazuna's house to rest. Everyone had been running on adrenaline the whole fight, so after the high was over, everyone was notable exhausted.

Naruto had, much to Sasuke's extreme embarrassment, carried Sasuke back to Tazuna's house in bridal style, easily ignoring easy feeble attempts to let him go. When Sasuke had demanded Naruto to put him down, Naruto had smirked and in an all too innocent voice, said that Sasuke was too injured and as his teammate, it was Naruto's duty to help him. When Sasuke asked him why he didn't carry him like he did with Kakashi, Naruto smirked and replied, "I just felt like embarrassing you."

What Sasuke didn't know was that after the carnage that Naruto performed, he needed some form of relief. Unfortunately for Sasuke, comic relief always worked well for Naruto. Naruto had kept his amusement to himself, lest Sasuke reverted to sticking senbon in his body from just cursing like a sailor.

After that, things in the town were slowly getting back to normal. Naruto and Kakashi performed a raid at Gato's headquarters the night after the battle on the bridge, which they found out after asking for directions from the residents. They were surprised that many of them knew of the place, but avoided it due to fear.

They had ransacked the entire place, looking for the money they knew that Gato kept. It was actually a good distraction for Naruto, and a very beneficial one at that.

_**Flashback**_

_Kakashi and Naruto entered the area of Gato, on full alert for any traps that lay ahead. They were here to find and confiscate all the money and valuables that Gato had earned over the years. Kakashi turned to Naruto._

"_Alright Naruto, here is where we split. We probably don't have to worry about his thugs anymore because he brought them all to the bridge, but just in case there are, be on guard._

"_You will be searching the main building, where the money is most likely kept. I will be scouring the warehouses. Since this country was not that rich to begin with, Gato would not be that interested in what it had to offer, instead letting his thugs have it and concentrating on his business. I will find the valuables and any evidence that can ensure that Gato's shipping company is shut down for good. All clear?"_

_Naruto gave a silent nod and as one, they dashed to complete their respective objectives. Naruto extended his senses and couldn't sense anyone, so he pushed on without hesitating. _

_He blew the front door open with glee that he rarely felt. Perhaps I should blow things up more often, he mused. He climbed the stairs, carefully checking for traps in places he suspected they would be, but found nothing on the first two of three floors. He was almost disappointed, almost. _

_He missed it. It was only after he lifted his foot that he heard the subtle click. The door was locked and his danger sense rang, slowing down his perception. He turned around just in time to see almost fifty knives rushing towards him, leaving no space for him to escape._

_He was insulted._

'_Fuuton: Toppa!' (Wind style: Breakthrough) and all the knives were blown back. Scoffing, he shook his head and simple jumped on the ceiling._

'_Who would think to lay traps on the ceiling?'_

_He easily walked upside down and jumped down in front of the first door he saw. He opened it and looked around, noting that it was Gato's study. Eyes sweeping around, there was nothing worth noting except for a small safe. 'There has to be something important in there', he thought as he tried to figure out a way to open it. As much as he would like to, blowing it open was not an option as he risked blowing up its contents as well._

_Eyes roaming around, looking for a clue, he spotted a piece of paper that was _sticking out of the lamp_. Curiosity growing, he plucked that piece of paper and had to keep himself from cackling like the devil. The safe combinations, laid bare, just like that?!_

_Hurriedly, he put in the combinations and watched the safe open. To his mild disappointment, there was only a sealed envelope inside. "Just what is he playing at?" he muttered._

_Turning it around, his eyes narrowed as his fingers brushed across something. 'Dried glue,' he inspected as he tore it with little difficulty. He took out another piece of paper and read it, seeing a whole new set of numbers written in similar format in comparison to another piece of paper._

_He chuckled, "This guy is just asking to get robbed." Looking around for one last time, noting there wasn't any other safe, he got out of the study and walked down to the last room on the floor. He opened at and after seeing what was in there, he shook his head in disappointment._

'_Leaving so many doors open, what the hell was he thinking?' he asked himself as he walked close to the enormous vault door to put in the combinations._

_He felt almost bored as he put the combinations. 'The dwarf's memory must be terrible if he needs clues to remember his clues.' He opened the door and barely kept his jaw from touching the ground. Piles of money taller than him stood in front of him. If Naruto had ever dreamed of drowning in piles of money, this would be defined as dreams turning into reality._

'_Let's get to work then. All of this should be pretty useful in helping this country get back on its feet and then some,' he decided as he prepared to make some shadow clones, but suddenly a thought struck him. A thought struck him, a thought that made his mind start wheeling._

_From the way he was thinking, all the parties could benefit from this, including him. But first, he needed to know how much money this was. Within a moment, twenty shadow clones popped into existence._

"_Start counting," he commanded._

_The clones divided themselves into groups of five and started counting by dividing the pile into smaller groups. It felt like an eternity and Naruto feared that Kakashi would suddenly bust through the door, but a call from one of the clones caught his attention as he was looking out on the grounds._

"_Boss, we're done," he called out. Naruto turned back to see that the one large pile had been divided into five smaller groups. He mentally dispelled them and his eyes widened at how much the big pile amounted to._

'_A hundred million ryo,' he thought, dumbfounded. 'What the hell was he planning to do with all this money?' he asked himself. He pondered over that for a while, in the meantime sending a shadow clone to give Kakashi a report of what he found. Altered, of course. _

_Finally, he came to a decision. Considering that this was a high A-class mission, one million ryo could be taken from this and ease the burden off Tazuna. From the ninety-nine million that remains, he would leave ninety million for the Wave country, while the rest of it, he could take it for himself._

_Now that would normally make him feel disgusted with himself, taking the money that should go to the people of the Wave country, unless he hadn't taken a look at Gato's records._

_Wave wasn't a rich country to begin with, so Gato didn't have much to siphon off, but what he did was no small figure. Thirty million, collected over a number of years, was a very large amount, Naruto believed._

_That tremendously eased the burden of feeling guilty from his mind. He was giving back three times the original amount of money! With a firm nod to himself, took out three sealing scrolls. With the help of some clones, he divided the money into three parts; one for Konoha, one for Wave and one for himself._

_He sealed his part first and put it in his right hip pouch just in time as Kakashi entered the room._

"…_.What ridiculous amount of money!" he breathed. Naruto slipped into his 'Normal and innocent' mode, the mode he usually used to take the blame off himself after pranks._

_Keeping his voice level, he nodded and said, "Yeah, makes you want to think what you would do if you had this kind of money."_

_They both looked at the pile of money. Naruto added in, "I already divided the pile up. One million for the cost of this mission, ninety million for this country to get back on its feet." He was counting on Kakashi assuming that there was ninety-one million ryo._

_Thankfully for him, Kakashi did just that._

_Kakashi nodded, not suspecting Naruto in the least. "Good, you got some sealing scrolls?"_

_After seeing him nod, he motioned, "Seal them separately and let's get back. I've found found what I needed."_

_Hurriedly sealing the other two parts, they exited the headquarters._

_**Flashback end**_

After they came back, it all went downhill. People who had abandoned Tazuna had come back to build the bridge. Naruto and Kakashi had informed Tazuna about the money they had taken from Gato's headquarters. Kakashi told him that he didn't need to pay Konoha for the increased difficulty of the mission since they had already taken it from Gato, which Tazuna thanked Kakashi massively for.

A massive celebration was held after the bridge was completed. The celebration lifted Naruto's spirits greatly, especially the part where Inari looked like he wasn't the host of a pity party anymore. Naruto was subjected to hero worship, a concept he as grossly unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, he took it in stride and indulged him as best as he could.

Finally the day came when the team finally returned to Konoha. They were standing at the end of the bridge, facing a massive crowd. The Konoha shinobi graciously accepted the thanks given by all the people. They faced the family who had hosted them at last. Naruto could say without doubt that he had never seen the small family of three so happy before. Inari, it seemed, had finally stopped clinging onto Kaiza's memory and moved on.

"I can't thank you guys enough for doing all of this for us. You have done such a great favor to us that I don't think we can ever repay you!" Waving off the protests that came from Naruto, he brightened up even more and said, "Whenever Konoha need some serious repairs, just call for me and I'll be there!"

He shook hands with Kakashi and bowed to Sasuke and Sakura, who bowed back out of respect. Turning to Naruto, he offered his hand out to shake. Naruto looked surprised for a moment, but recovered and gave a strong handshake to Tazuna with a genuine smile.

"We really are going to miss you, Naruto," he said. Much to his amusement, Naruto blushed a little before acknowledging the man's comment.

Naruto looked down to see Inari struggling to hold back his tears. It was a clear failure though, as tears flew like a bursting dam. "You told me not to cry…." He said as he furiously wiped his tears.

Naruto smiled softly as he knelt down, "It doesn't apply when you are happy, alright? Don't hesitate to cry if you are happy, promise me?" He offered a hand.

Inari gave a watery smile but shook Naruto's hand with as much force as he could, "Hai, Naruto-niichan!"

With that, he stood up and with a final goodbye, Kakashi steered his team back to Konoha.

A man in the crowd shouted, "What are we going to name this bridge?!" Everyone murmured similar things, eyes turning to Tazuna.

Inari tugged Tazuna's pants, "Jiji, let's name it after Naruto-niichan!"

A childlike suggestion from a small child, who wanted something that reminded him of the person he looked up to near him. But it clicked perfectly in Tazuna's mind.

A full smile blossomed on Tazuna's face at his grandson's suggestion, "You're right! Let's name it: The Great Naruto Bridge!" He felt it was a great name, considering how Naruto played a big part in giving the town its hope back and not to mention, he brightened up their family considerably.

The ride back home was not what Naruto's teammates called pleasant. It was a very unfortunate way for them to discover what a speed freak Naruto was. Sasuke's jealousy reared its head when he saw his blonde teammate telling to Kakashi that they are going too slow and he was speeding up and he will meet them at the Konoha gates. That did not sit well with Sasuke.

With that, Naruto had ran ahead of Kakashi, who knew exactly what Naruto was up to. He was trying to rile Sasuke up and judging from the impressive scowl on Sasuke's face, it was working spectacularly. Kakashi was more than glad to sit back and watch the show.

Sasuke increased his speed to catch up to Naruto, who would, unknown to Sasuke, smirk playfully and increased his speed so that he was just ahead of Sasuke. This continued until Sasuke was panting to just maintain his speed instead of outright falling behind his whole team.

When they reached Konoha, no one was gladder than Sasuke, who was barely standing from all the exertion. Naruto on the other hand, was barely panting. In fact, he seemed to be in deep thought.

Sasuke mustered a glare as best as he could while panting heavily, "You….are…..a freak," he said.

Naruto, for his credit, blinked once and turned to him with a confused look, "Huh, did you say something?"

It proved too much for Sasuke, who collapsed. Sakura ran to him, worry written all over his face. Naruto scoffed, and turned to Kakashi, who giving him a strange look.

It almost felt like reverence and….pride?

"They grow so fast," he heard the man mutter while wiping a fake tear from his eye.

Naruto rolled his eyes and spoke, "Are we going to the Hokage's office or not?"

XXXXXXX

The visit to the old man was interesting. When Kakashi first told him what had actually happened on the _supposedly _C-rank mission, he took a deep breath and calmly asked the genin to wait outside his office while he had a word with Kakashi.

Naruto had figured out instantly what was going to happen and walked out, but not before giving a shit eating grin to Kakashi, whose eye visibly twitched. He knew that the blonde _knew _he was going to get chewed out, and he was _enjoying _it.

Fifteen minutes of chewing out later, they were called back into the office again, where the Hokage congratulated them on surviving the mission and then congratulated them individually on their performance. Though things got a little awkward because he had nothing to praise Sakura for.

After telling them to collect their pay from the mission desk, he told them to leave, except for Naruto. Kakashi told Naruto to be at their training spot at eight before walking out.

"Naruto, I want you to tell me the truth. Are you alright?" his eyes were full of concern. Naruto smiled softly.

"Jiji, I'm fine. I've made my peace with what I did back on the bridge. If I hadn't did what I did, those thugs would have continued to terrorize the town. Also, giving the country a wave to rebuild itself was enough to lessen the burden on my mind," he explained.

Hiruzen searched his face for any sign of lie, and exhaled in relief when he found none. When he had heard it the first time from Kakashi, he was so stupefied that the pipe had dropped from his mouth. Naruto had done exactly what his father had done in the Third Great Shinobi war. He could not stop himself from looking at the portrait of his now-dead successor. Seeing Minato's cold expression he was reminded of how Minato's mere presence sent enemies running from him.

He shuddered as he once again compared the similarities between Minato and Naruto, imagining Naruto instead of Minato. _'Oh, Minato. If Naruto is even remotely similar to you, he will change the whole world. Of that I have on doubt.'_

Looking back at Naruto, he could swear he had seen Minato standing behind his Naruto, having the same expression on his face. Waving his thoughts away, he said, "Alright Naruto. But if you have to talk about anything, you are welcome anytime," he added a smile.

Naruto smiled and walked out of the office to the mission desk to collect his money first. The chunin sitting there glared at him as he handed the money to Naruto. Naruto only gave a cool smile, further infuriating the man. After taking the scroll, he immediately used the _shunshin _to get to his apartment. He had a lot of things to do today.

After getting refreshed, he sat down at his table and made a list of what he had to do today.

First, put an order out for his _Hiraishin _kunai. They would be a bit different than those of his father.

Second, secure the money he had taken from Gato. That was the easiest as it won't be going into the bank.

Third, work out a deal to get his special kunai for free. He would have to work on that a bit.

Nodding to himself, he set to work. The first and the last task he would be doing himself, while the middle one can be handled by his clone. He took out a paper and a brush and started sketching ideas for a new seal.

The seal would be similar to the Nidaime's _Gojo Kibaku Fuda_. If he wanted his third idea to work, he would have to offer the Higurashi weapons shop owner something interesting enough in return, as his order was quite tall. Ideas swam in his head as he worked out the original seal.

_Gojo Kibaku Fuda _was a simple explosive tag with a small addition: a replication seal that would create an identical tag. The second Hokage had designed the chakra circuit such that it would first replicate the original tag before exploding. Then the other tag would create another tag before exploding as well, and so on. This would result in a chain of reactions that had the potential to be as powerful as a nuclear bomb. The best thing was only the first tag would be real, the rest would only be copies.

He frowned a bit. Obviously, he could not give this exploding tags to Higurashi. The Nidaime must have labeled this as a kinjutsu for a reason. He chewed on his bottom lip in thought as he tried to think of an alternative. He could modify a normal explosive tag to increase the power, but that was it. What else could he do?

His eyes suddenly brightened up as he remembered his battle on the bridge. How he had used the _kunai kage Bunshin_. It was similar to the tandem exploding tags, only it required a bit more chakra.

'_I could simply replace the idea of exploding tags with kunai!' _he thought in satisfaction as he set to altering the seal to suit the kunai. Half an hour, he looked at the tag he had managed to create. It could be mistaken for an exploding tag from a distance, but a mistake was all it was.

He created a clone, who took a kunai and wrapped the tag Naruto gave him. Going up to the roof, he faced the direction where the training fields were. Pushing half of his chakra, he threw the kunai.

Normally, a hail of kunai suddenly appearing would be a cause of concern, but since it was the clone's kunai and as such, only a construct of chakra, it would dispel along with the clone.

The clone watched with a self-satisfied smile as the kunai multiplied greatly. Seeing that the tag worked, he dispelled himself, which caused all the kunai to dispel. _Gojo kunai rendan _was a success.

Naruto gave a grin of satisfaction as he went through the memories. The tag worked, which means he could now go to the weapons shop. Gathering the tags, he stood up and created a shadow clones, instructions already given.

He then used the _body flicker _to get to the Higurashi weapons shop. Opening the door of the store, he blinked at the girl who was standing behind the counter.

She wore a pink Chinese top with a green lower and had her hair tied in two buns. She smiled at him, "Hello, what do you need?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow at her. It was obvious that she was a ninja from the headband, and a one that specialized in weapons judging from her heavily calloused hands. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. You are?" He asked, politely, of course.

Tenten replied, "Higurashi Tenten, nice to meet you." Ah, so she was the daughter of the owner, he mused.

"Tenten, I need forty kunai, thirty shuriken and seven explosive tags," he said. Tenten wrote down the order and said, "Ok, I'll be back soon."

As she walked away, he called out, "Tenten!"

She turned around, blinking at him. "Yes?"

Naruto smiled and asked, "Could you also call your father? I have a special order I need to run by him."

Tenten narrowed her eyes at him a bit, which he responded by giving a cool smile. Nonetheless, she went to fetch his order and her father. He looked around the shop a bit, blinking when the memories of his shadow clones came to him. He nodded when he saw where the money was hidden, a place that no one except him knew. That would only be used in case of emergency.

He snapped back to awareness as he saw a large man coming from the back of the shop. He was heavily built, as expected of a weaponsmith. Even though his large stature added to the intimidation factor, he had a gentle smile on his face.

Tenchi smiled as he saw who had requested his presence. No matter how many times he saw him, Naruto only looked more like his old friend Minato.

"Naruto, how can I help you today?"

Naruto smiled and nodded his greeting, "Tenchi-san, I have a special order that only you can see." He gave an apologetic look to Tenten, who gave a playful pout, but smiled and went inside the shop.

Taking out a piece of paper from the counter and a brush, he started sketching.

Tenchi's eyes widened as he started to recognize the shape that was being formed. It was the famed kunai of the yondaime, only a bit different. While Minato's kunai's side prongs were slightly curved in a semi-circular shape, Naruto's kunai's side prongs were straight, if not a bit shorter than the original design. The middle prong was also a bit longer. Unusual, like his father's, but not impractical at all.

Seeing where Naruto was going with this, he said, "I can see that you want your design a bit different, but it can be done."

Naruto then decided to put his proposal forward, "I was also hoping to arrange a deal between us for a future discount on these kunai. A trade, if you will."

Tenchi rose an eyebrow in interest, "Oh?"

Naruto grinned and pulled out the additional tags that he created, "I think you will be very interested in these."

In ten minutes, he explained how the _Gojo Kunai Rendan _worked. At the end of his explanation, he put his offer on the table, "I keep supplying you these tags, for free. In return, you supply me the special kunai, for free. A fair trade, considering their battle potential."

Tenchi rubbed his chin in thought. He could see that the tags had a very high chance of selling. Hell, he might even say that the value of the tags were higher than the tri-pronged kunai, as it was only an oddly shaped kunai and nothing more.

Still, he needed to see how much thought Naruto had put into making these tags. "I don't know, Naruto. Don't you ninjas have a jutsu that multiplies the number of kunai as well? Why would they use this tag and not that jutsu?"

Naruto had half expected this question, so he answered, "The _Kunai Kage Bunshin _is a variant of _Kage Bunshin_, so it uses up a large amount of the user's chakra, leaving them very little chakra and a high risk of getting chakra exhaustion quickly. In my tags, you only have to push a little chakra to multiply the number of kunai by large."

Tenchi grinned, "You have a deal Naruto! As long as you keep supplying these to me, you can get your order for free!"

Naruto grinned and held out his hand for Tenchi to shake, "Then we have a deal. You can keep these tags, so how long before I can get thirty of my kunai?"

Tenchi shrugged, "You can collect them from me tomorrow." Naruto smiled and nodded, walking out of the store after collecting and paying for the order he gave to Tenten. He blinked when he saw it was already early evening. _'Might as well get some training done. Master those jutsus back from the wave,' _he decided as he made his way to the Senju library. He proceeded to spend the entire night training with his shadow clones, which were in an absurd amount of two hundred.

Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu, to his pleasant surprise, required him to reduce only two more handseals, bringing the number to eight. The Suiryuudan, on the other hand, would require much more training. Reducing the handseals to thirty was good and all, but the Nidaime was able to do it with just four hand seals.

Finishing his training for the day, he turned in, exhausted more than he would like to admit.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had a very uneventful start of the day after. He got up at five, did his regular running routine with increased resistance, came back and showered. He ate omelets for breakfast, played around with seals until it was ten minutes to eleven and then went to meet his teammates, who were irritated and angry at Kakashi, _again. _He thought that maybe, Kakashi might give them something interesting to do, like another C-rank mission or some training.

But no! They did some lame D-rank mission of taking the weeds out of someone's garden, before Kakashi dismissed them, saying something about keep training. After that, he was aimlessly roaming around, thinking about what happened after their mission. It was the only highlight of his day until now.

_**Flashback**_

"_Alright, you are dismissed," Kakashi said in his ever lazy tone, eyes not moving from his book._

_Naruto groaned, "Come on, Kakashi-sensei! It is only noon right now, we have half the day to do some training!" While Sasuke and Sakura didn't say anything, Naruto knew even they wanted something interesting to happen._

_Kakashi calmly flipped a page, "Naruto, I dismissed you already. You can do your own training now." He looked up from the pages, "Trust me, it's better that you all train by yourself right now. Perfect whatever you have learned until now."_

_Eye smiling, he was gone in a puff of smoke. Sakura turned to Sasuke, blushing lightly, "Sasuke-kun, would you go out with me today, now that we're free?"_

_As usual, Sasuke scoffed and walked away saying, "You heard Kakashi-sensei. I'm going to train myself." He looked at her from the corner of his eye, "It's better that you do too. Right now, you are the weakest member of this team." _

_Naruto winced at his teammate's blunt words, but what he said was true. A simple punch was enough to take Sakura out, which was not a good thing. Shaking his head, he formed a half ram and vanished in a wind shunshin, leaving Sakura to her thoughts._

_He was walking towards a dango shop when he saw team 10 coming out, chewing on some dango. Smiling, he walked towards them to catch up with Shikamaru and Chouji._

"_Oi, Shikamaru, Chouji!" The mentioned genin looked up in surprise and smiled when they saw Naruto waving towards them._

"_Yo, Naruto!" Shikamaru gave a lazy wave while Chouji was more enthusiastic. Ino, on the other hand, scowled a bit. She never liked Naruto. He was too loud and annoying according to her._

_Naruto stopped in front of them, "What's up? Where's Asuma-sensei?"_

_Chouji replied, "Asuma-sensei dismissed us for the day. What about you, Naruto?"_

_Naruto shrugged in response, "Kakashi-sensei dismissed us early too. Very unusual of him, if you ask me."_

_Ino couldn't hold back her sneer, "Well, no one's asking you."_

_Naruto glanced at Ino and rose an eyebrow, "Nice to see you too, Ino." That was all he said before he turned to Shikamaru, asking if he and Chouji could spar with him._

_Shikamaru sighed, muttering troublesome under his breath, but agreed along with Chouji. It would allow them to see how far they have come. Though he knew that they wouldn't be defeating Naruto anytime soon._

_Ino scoffed, smirking at Naruto, "You really shouldn't be asking to spar with Shikamaru and Chouji. They would wipe the floor with you, dead last."_

_Chouji did not like what Ino implied and he prepared to defend Naruto when Naruto spoke before him, amusement written all over his face, "Oh, really?"_

_Ino nodded, "Even I could kick your ass. I bet that on the C-rank turned A-rank your team went on, Sasuke-kun saved your ass and defeated Zabuza."_

_Naruto looked confused and asked Shikamaru, "How do you guys know about that?"_

_Shikamaru replied, "Asuma-sensei apparently heard it from your sensei and told us."_

_Naruto nodded and turned back to Ino. This was the perfect opportunity for him to teach Ino a lesson about 'How to not act like a bitch.'_

_He asked her, "How about a spar, Ino? If you said you can beat me, then I wouldn't mind a workout right now before losing to you."_

_Ino smirked, thinking she could easily beat him, "Then let's go. Training ground 10."_

_After they reached there, Naruto and Ino stood in front of each other, with Shikamaru acting as the referee. "This is only a spar. You only knock the other unconscious, not kill them. Are you ready?" Even speaking in his lazy tone, he sounded serious. Must be a Nara thing, he mused._

_Naruto and Ino nodded, falling into their stances. Shikamaru chopped the air, "Hajime!" He fell back after that._

_Naruto, keeping his guard up and deciding to bait Ino, relaxed and put his hands in his pockets. Ino scowled and asked, "What the hell are you doing?!"_

_Naruto cleaned his ear, "It's just that…..you don't threaten me Ino."_

_Ino snarled and dashed forward, throwing a punch, intending on breaking his nose. Her anger turned into shock when Naruto simply stopped her punch with one hand, he didn't even look like he tried!_

_Shikamaru and Chouji were surprised as well, but not as much as Ino. They knew Naruto was not the dead last, even in academy. If anything, he was perhaps the strongest of the rookies. "Ino's going to get beat up, isn't she, Shikamaru?"_

_Shikamaru simply hummed in response._

_Ino was getting very frustrated. Naruto was dodging her attacks like he had all the time in the world. And he was blocking them like they had no power behind them. She decided to goad him, "Hmph, are you too afraid of countering? Or you don't know how to counter at all?"_

_Naruto was quickly getting bored of Ino's pathetic attacks and pathetic ways of goading him. 'Better to end this, otherwise I'm gonna fall asleep' he thought._

_Catching a punch that was coming towards his face, he gave a devastating punch to her gut, knocking the air out. He didn't even give her time to fall to her knees, following with an uppercut to her chin that was strong enough to straighten her up and finishing off with a spinning back kick that knocked her a few feet back._

_Ino was barely keeping from crying in pain. Her stomach felt like someone had been jumping on it for an hour and she was pretty sure a few of her teeth were knocked loose. She barely registered Naruto's mocking voice, "You sure showed me, Ino. You're just as pathetic as Sakura. What were you saying about kicking my ass again?"_

_Gritting her teeth, she fought the pain and began to form handseals, only to get knocked out._

_Naruto shook his head, "Some people are nothing but full of air." He then glanced at the other two, who were barely surprised. "Well, patch her up and tell her that the next time blows hot air, it better be fire for her own sake."_

_With that, he walked away._

_**Flashback end**_

Naruto was snapped out of his musings when he heard something behind him. Glancing back, he barely registered the urge to smack his forehead when he saw a brown box with two holes facing him.

It was an eventful day, meeting the old man's grandson. He had managed to, somehow, become a rival of Konohamaru in becoming the Hokage. He had knocked some sense into that boy's head, showing him that not everybody bowed to him just because he was the Hokage's grandson. Ever since that day, he became an object of hero worship.

Turning to the box, he said with some exasperation, "Konohamaru, square boxes with holes don't exist, you know."

A squeaky, muffled voice came from the box, "Wow! Discovering my presence this early! As I expected from my rival and my hero!"

There was a bright explosion of colored smoke, from which three figures emerged, coughing. "Hey, you used too much powder!" It was then they noticed Naruto looking at them with something akin to amusement.

Naruto was looking at Konohamaru and two other kids he had never seen. One was a boy with black hair, glasses and a runny nose. The other was a girl with orange hair, a slight blush on both of her cheeks. Konohamaru grinned up to Naruto.

"Boss, you have some time, right?" Naruto looked confused at what he was trying to say at first, but he quickly pieced it together. Hyper eight year old kid with friends, asking if he was free or not. Yep, they wanted him to play ninja with them.

'**How about you humor them'**, Kurama asked with a grin. Naruto rolled his eyes,_ 'If I humor them, Kurama, I would be stuck with them all day. That is something I don't want to do,' _he said with resignation.

Turning his attention back to Konohamaru, he said, "While I do have some time, I won't be playing ninja with you. You guys get too carried away," he tried to gently let him down. Then something struck him.

"Hey, you haven't introduced your friends. Who are they?"

"I'm Udon and I like numbers!" The black haired boy greeted in what was the deadliest voice possible.

"And I'm Moegi! The most beautiful kunoichi in Konoha!" The orange haired girl said in a bubbly voice. Naruto smiled, _'God, how innocent these kids are.'_

"What's the point of a ninja playing ninja?" A voice that sounded detached came. All of them turned to look at Sakura, who looked like someone had just told her Sasuke was gay.

Naruto's expression became his usual bored, indifferent look, "Sakura, what are you doing here?"

Before Sakura could reply, Konohamaru nudged Naruto with a sly look. "Hey boss?"

"Hm?"

"She's your….right?" He asked holding up a pinky with a smirk. Naruto chuckled, "No Konohamaru, she's just my teammate."

That seemed to fire up Konohamaru even more, "Just what I expected from my rival! Her forehead is huge and her chest is flat as a board!" Naruto's head snapped to Sakura to see her reaction. Konohamaru might as well have signed his death.

Sakura's mood did a full 180 after hearing the kid wearing the blue scarf. She got a menacing look on her face and cracked her knuckles, clearly saying "You are dead!"

Naruto pushed Konohamaru, "Run kid! I'll meet you later!" Konohamaru needed to more pushing as he ran in the opposite direction with his friends, screaming in horror.

Naruto shook his head and made to follow him, ignoring Kurama's chuckles. _'That kid has a lot to learn,' _he thought as he made a shadow clone who took after Konohamaru while he took a different path. If he was fast enough, his little rival wouldn't have bumps in his head.

He kept his sensing active to track Sakura's signature and made his turns such that he would meet them in the opposite direction. What he did not expect was face the back of two shinobi his age, one boy and a girl, the boy holding up Konohamaru who was terrified.

'_That's not good,' _he thought as he perfectly switched with his clone, and that was when he got a good look at the foreigners. The one that held Konohamaru honestly looked like a cat, with how his headwear looked. He was wearing face paint of all things, black sandals, black shirt and black pants.

The other one was the one who caught his attention in a way that no girl had caught before. He somehow couldn't stop staring at her. She was, by far, the most beautiful kunoichi he had ever laid his eyes on. She wore a single light purple colored, off the shoulders garment that extended to halfway down her thighs, with a red sash tied around her waist. She wore a fishnet over her exposed shoulders, along with on her left thigh and right calf. She was also carrying a large fan on her back.

She had her hair toed up in four ponytails, with a rather developed chest for her age, which he guessed was a year higher that them, curves in all the right places, slightly tanned skin, sandy blonde hair and alluring teal eyes.

Temari noticed the blonde boy staring at her and couldn't help the slight blush that came onto her age. He was pretty tall, easily a bit above five feet and obviously well built if how his clothes fit him were anything to go by. His hair, to her pleasant surprise, was a very golden shade of blonde, bordering on yellow. She looked at his eyes and her blush darkened a bit. His eyes were the most beautiful azures she had ever seen, staring at her with curiosity and something else she couldn't identify, but it gave her a warm feeling.

She shook her head and focused on her brother, who was glaring at the kid with annoyance.

"That hurt, you damn brat!" He was clearly pissed off.

Naruto decided that now was the time to intervene and with a hidden signal to his clone, spoke up, "You might want to put him down, kabuki boy."

That only seemed to piss him off even more, "Yeah? What if I don't?" He then froze, getting the unmistakable feeling of a kunai on his neck. "I don't need to say it, right?"

Temari looked with wide eyes as the blonde who was standing before them had somehow made a clone who was holding a kunai to her brother's neck. And they hadn't even seen him move!

'_He's good,'_ she thought as she saw Kankuro grudgingly release the boy, who ran and hid behind the blonde's legs. A second later, a pebble hit his hand, which he clutched in pain and cried out, "Who did that?!"

Naruto couldn't help the sigh that came out. _'Didn't he say he was going to train?' _he had already sensed Sasuke, who was standing on the branch of the tree behind him, bouncing a pebble in his hands with a superior look on his face. Interestingly, he also sensed another guy, who was giving off a very malicious feeling and oozing off killing intent like nobody's business.

Deciding to address it later, he turned his attention back to in front of him.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shrieked. Naruto rubbed his ringing ears at the terrible soprano. Temari looked at Sasuke, _'Hm, he's cute, but he's nowhere as handsome as the blonde,' _she smirked, eyes turning back to check Naruto out.

Kankuro snarled and made to grab the package on his back, which Naruto deduced to be a puppet judging from their sand headbands and the fact that Suna is known for puppets, when he decided to intervene. Temari asked, "You're going to use Karasu, Kankuro?!"

"Wait!" His sudden exclamation momentarily stopped the sand shinobi momentarily. He pointed to the tree behind him, "I just wanted to know if the guy standing behind my teammate is with you or not?"

Both of their eyes widened along with Sasuke's, who whipped around to see a redhead standing upside down on a branch behind him. He had a kanji for love on his forehead, teal eyes with black rings around his eyes, giving him an appearance like a Tanuki and he was carrying a gourd on his back.

He disappeared in a whirl of sand and reappeared by the side of the puppet kid. "Kankuro, stop it. We're not here to cause trouble. Stop embarrassing our village," he spoke in a voice so cold that even Naruto shivered. However, the reactions of the sand shinobi were even more scared.

Kankuro stammered out an apology, "G-Gaara! They started it! They-"

"Shut up, or I'll kill you," Gaara said in his deadly voice. Kankuro shut up immediately.

Gaara turned to the Konoha shinobi, "Apologies to you guys." They made to walk off when Sasuke jumped in front of Naruto and demanded in an arrogant voice, "You there! What's your name?" pointing to Gaara.

All three of them turned, with Gaara speaking, "Sabaku no Gaara. What's yours?"

Sasuke gave off s challenging smirk, "Uchiha Sasuke."

"I wasn't talking to you," Gaara said monotonously, eyes turning to Naruto, who straightened up. "Uzumaki Naruto," he said in a strong voice. Eyes shifting to Temari, he smiled and asked, "What's yours?"

Temari smiled in return, "Sabaku no Temari, nice to meet you." They looked into each other's eyes and kept staring, neither wanting to look away. Unfortunately, Sakura chose this moment to speak up.

"Listen, although Konoha and Suna are allies, our treaty prevents shinobi from entering each other's villages without permission. State your purpose." Naruto simply looked on, his face not betraying anything.

Temari spoke up, holding up her passport, "As you can see, we're genin of Sunagakure no sato, Kaze no kuni. We've come to this village to take part in the chunin exams." She gave a mocking smile to her, "Don't you know, being the genin of the host village?"

Naruto gave a shake of head from behind Sakura, clearly mouthing, "Our sensei hasn't informed us yet, Temari."

Temari had thankfully seen him and received his message, giving him a nod. The three sand siblings then turned and walked away, leaving team 7 with Konohamaru and his friends.

XXXXXXX

"You all should already know why people from other villages are here," the Hokage addressed the assembly of jonin and chunin.

Kakashi spoke up, "Is it that time of the year already, Hokage-sama?"

Asuma replied to him, "I believe so. I have already seen a few shinobi the age of our genin in our village."

Kurenai spoke up. "When is it, Hokage-sama?"

"Seven days from now, Kurenai-chan. Now, will all the jonin step forward who are in charge of the newest batch of genin?"

Asuma, Kakashi and Kurenai stepped forward. Hiruzen gave them a contemplative stare and asked, "Do you wish to enter any of your genin in the exams?"

Kakashi spoke up, "From the squad that I lead, Team 7, I recommend Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruna Sakura to the Chunin selection exams under the name, Hatake Kakashi."

Asuma spoke next, "From the squad that I lead, Team 10, I recommend Nara Shikamaru , Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino to the Chunin selection exams under the name, Sarutobi Asuma."

Kurenai was the last, "From the squad that I lead, Team 8, I recommend Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino to the Chunin selection exams under the name, Yuuhi Kurenai."

The crowd behind them erupted into murmurs. "All three of them nominated their teams!" "All the genin being entered are fresh rookies!" "It's been so long since rookies have been entered in the chunin exams."

Iruka, who had been standing in the back and watching his former students, who were not even one year into their career, get nominated for the chunin exams, could hold it anymore.

"Please wait, Hokage-sama! Permission to speak?"

Hiruzen gave him a silent nod to continue.

Iruka then spoke frantically, "Excuse me for saying this, but your nine students were once my students in the academy. They need more experience before they enter the chunin exams!"

Kakashi knew that Iruka was worried about Naruto, but he was now Kakashi's student, not Iruka's. So he spoke up in a serious tone that betrayed his lazy posture, "I became a chunin when I was six years younger than Naruto."

Iruka's comeback was spot on, "Don't compare Naruto to yourself, Kakashi! He is different!"

Kakashi knew that Naruto could easily ace the exams, but he addressed the issue that was common among all genin. "The genin are starting to believe that a shinobi's life is easy. Putting them in dangerous situations might set them straight."

Iruka began speaking, "But-"

"They are not your students anymore, Iruka-sensei. They are my subordinates now and as such, I am the one who will make such decisions for them," he sternly reminded the gentle chunin-sensei.

Hiruzen spoke to the defeated Iruka, "Iruka, I see where you are coming from." Iruka lightened up a bit, "Which is why, the rookies will be put through a special preliminary round. Dismissed!"

**Author's note: Seriously speaking, I did not feel as good as I usually do when I wrote the previous chapters. I feel this one is a bit too messed up. No action at all. Please forgive me for this one. Please?**

**On the bright side, Naruto has finally met Temari! Their meeting went exactly as I wanted it to be. Ok, maybe a bit off the mark, but I will build up their romance during the exams. Whoo, honestly speaking, even I was getting angsty and impatient, but I have put milestones to where a chapter ends. If I want this story to go nice and long, I have to follow them. Please review and follow! Laters!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: Hey there readers! This is not an update, just a note to address some issues. Not exactly that but…..I would like to come clean on some points.**

**Otsutsuki no yami, your message raised some very good points that made me think a lot about this story, mostly if I am doing it right or not. DON'T THINK I'M BLAMING YOU FOR ANYTHING! I'M NOT! It's just that….I can't describe it. But you are right. In words of Uchiha Itachi, every jutsu has faults and Hiraishin is no different. I'm just not very creative in coming up with ways to use it such as you described in your message.**

**Also, I am terrible at giving names to stories, as evidenced by my previous works. I couldn't find an appropriate title for my story. "The return of the Flash" came to my mind, but by then it was already too late and I don't know if it's a good time to change the name of my story. The speedster of Konoha sounded terrible even in my head, but at the time no more options came to my mind.**

**A confession to all readers:**

**Yes, I am making out Naruto to be a copy of his father because I like it this way. When I first watched Naruto, Minato was what I called an ideal shinobi. There are so many stories out there, portraying Naruto to be like Minato. So many had tremendous potential and yet, all of them are abandoned. I was so disappointed every time that I finally decided to write my own, in which Naruto would be a copy of Minato, or at least as close I can make him without making him just Minato.**

**Don't worry, I won't be abandoning it anytime soon. I have every intention of seeing it to the end and maybe even into Shippuden if I feel good about this story.**

**Minor confession to guest: Sorry, that was a mistake on my part. I had forgotten that I wrote Naruto knows shunshin from the previous chapters. Apologies.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13

**Author's note: Alright people! I have nothing to address as of now, so let's get on with the story!**

As soon as the siblings left, Naruto bod a hasty goodbye to Konohamaru and _shunshined _out of there straight to training ground 6. That team, he noted doesn't train much, so they wouldn't mind him using their training ground. As he created a few shadow clones for sparring, Kurama briefly brought him into his mindscape.

"**Naruto…do you know why that boy felt so familiar to you?" **he asked, tails swaying behind him as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto folded his arms, _"Good to know that it wasn't just me then. I believe that he is another jinchuriki."_

Kurama nodded, **"Exactly. But be on guard, his bijuu is dangerous and because of who is inside him, it's possible that the boy is completely mad."**

Naruto tilted his head curiously. It's not every day that the nine-tailed fox says someone is powerful. _"Just who is inside him, Kurama?"_

"**The one-tailed raccoon, Shukaku. He is the weakest of the tailed beasts, and bat shit insane," **he said it with a serious face, at which Naruto would have laughed if not for the fact that he realized that another jinchuriki is roaming unchecked in Konoha.

Jinchuriki, according to the stuff he has read up until now, are usually sent into other villages so they can burn or crush it into the ground. And he didn't see any person with Gaara who was in charge of him. Kankuro and Temari certainly couldn't control him, evidenced by how much afraid they are of him.

Kurama continued, **"You noticed the black rings around his eyes? It means that he hasn't slept in years, probably." **Naruto went wide eyed at that, _"What the hell?!"_

Kurama nodded in complete seriousness, **"Suna doesn't have any great seal masters, so the seal on that jinchuriki is quite loose, compared to yours. If the host falls asleep, Shukaku will take control and come out. Best be on guard, because he already got you in his sights, no doubt from sensing my presence within you."**

Naruto agreed, _"Thanks for the warning, Kurama. I'll keep it in mind." _With that, he exited his mindscape and focused on the defending exercise. As he blocked and dodged every strike from his clones, he hoped that Kakashi would enter them in the chunin exams. Then another thought came to his mind, more specifically, a person.

He smiled wistfully as he punched a clone in the ribs, dispelling it. He had never seen such a beautiful girl ever before. Then again, there weren't many girls of his age in Konoha, and Ino and Sakura didn't count. He knew from the day he saw them that he wouldn't be liking them anytime soon.

Temari was different, however and in a good way. Her looks were quite exotic, especially her eyes. He had never seen eyes of that color and he had to admit, it was quite easy getting lost in them for him. He knew, from his own observations, that his own eye color was one of a kind in all of Konoha. Her being a blonde like him was only a plus point in his eyes.

From what he had observed and could tell, she and the two other shinobi were siblings, with Temari being the oldest. It was pretty easy to reach that conclusion. Temari and Gaara shared the same eyes and facial shape, but Temari shared the shape of her eyes with Kankuro, not to mention the way she acted with him. Very much like an older sister who was used to bashing her brother's head but didn't because they were in public.

And that smirk, oh kami. He could say with full certainty that it was the sexiest smirk he had seen among the girls of his age, which was quite ironic seeing he created the sexy jutsu. Her smile was not far behind, though it could easily beat her smirk when coupled with the very pretty blush that came over her face while she was looking at him.

He could not wait to see her again.

XXXXXXX

Team seven was standing on the bridge and as usual, waiting for their tardy mess of a sensei. It had been almost three hours, when Sakura finally cracked.

With a scream of frustration that no doubt scared the birds resting a mile away, she ranted, "Argh! Why does Kakashi-sensei always make us wait when he's the one who always calls us?!"

She began ranting about she had woken up late and hadn't had the chance to blow dry her hair. Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other, sharing a look of shared suffering. While Naruto had just turned up twenty minutes ago, he still couldn't bear Sakura's incessant nonsense.

'_Why the hell does she have to be so damn loud every time?' _was the thought that went through the boys' heads.

Naruto finally sensed Kakashi's presence heading their way and straightened up. Sasuke, who had learned to read Naruto's body language after a while, straightened up as well, knowing that his teammate had sensed someone coming their way.

True enough, there was a puff of smoke, which turned out to be Kakashi. Waving a hand at them, he had the never to cheerfully excuse himself, "Hello there. I got lost on the road of life today…"

"Only someone like you could get lost on a one-way road," Naruto grumbled, hands in his pockets and giving Kakashi a deadpan look.

"…..I'll pretend you didn't say that and get to the point." He held up three application tickets, "I nominated you three for the chunin selection exams. You are not forced to take it, however. You have a choice whether to take part in it or not." How he managed to say in his ever lazy tone of voice and still sound serious was beyond Naruto's understanding. Must be innate talent, he mused.

"Though if you do decide to take them, go to the academy in six days at three in the afternoon, room 301," he added.

They were dismissed after that. Naruto suggested that they get lunch together, after which they can go their separate ways to train. While they were walking to Ichiraku ramen, Naruto noticed that Sakura looked quite uncertain, which matched the feeling of her chakra.

"Something bothering you, Sakura?"

Sakura blinked and looked at Naruto, a nervous smile appearing in her face, "N-No, Naruto. E-Everything's fine."

Sasuke too noticed her behavior, but kept quiet. As long as she was ready for the chunin exams, it was fine. Naruto on the other hand, had doubts.

He knew that chunin exams were no joke. Ninja from all the villages participated and at times, death happened. He would be scared too, if he didn't train his ass off every day. _'Hope this exam teaches you a lesson Sakura. The world of Shinobi is not a place for fangirls,' _he grimly thought to himself.

They went into the bar and were greeted by Teuchi with a warm grin, "Oh Naruto and his team! Come and have a seat!"

Naruto grinned. Old man Teuchi never failed to bring a smile on his face. His amusement grew when he heard Sasuke mutter, "Stop saying it like he is the leader of this team."

As they sat down on the stools, Teuchi asked for orders. Naruto was the first to speak, "I'll have two miso ramen, please."

Sakura spoke next, "One Toriniki ramen, please."

Sasuke was the last, "I'll have a Tonkatsu ramen, thank you."

Naruto envied the way Sasuke ordered his food. The arrogance came so natural to him, Naruto wished that he could do it as well. He turned to Sakura, who looked worried about something.

'_Come to think of it, she has been acting strange ever since the topic of chunin exams came up,'_ he thought.

'**It's not that strange for weaklings to feel this way when they are faced with the unknown,' **Kurama offered his view.

Naruto rolled his eyes and ignored the comment, though he didn't deny it either. So, he decided to talk to her. Speaking in a low tone, he asked her, "Sakura, how do you feel about the chunin exams?"

Sakura was startled when he suddenly spoke to her. Calming down herself, she was about to tell him to mind his own business when she met his eyes. So full of sincerity, and he seemed to genuinely want to listen to her.

She hesitated, not sure of how she should say it. "I…it's kind of scary, you know? Right now, I know that I'm not ready, but….when will I know that I am?" Her thoughts were very much jumbled up right now to be phrased properly.

Naruto said nothing until their order arrived. He separated his sticks and as he waited for it to cool a bit, he spoke, "I won't sugarcoat my words Sakura, but you haven't trained seriously since the academy and even then, you probably did the bare minimum of what the instructors told to do, didn't you?"

Her silence and shameful expression told him that his deduction was spot on. A side glance also told him that Sasuke was eating his food quietly, not paying any attention to them. But that did not fool Naruto, who smirked when he observed Sasuke's body was tilted towards their side.

He continued, "Ever since the academy and even after when our team was formed, you kept neglecting your training in favor of pining after Sasuke, even going on a diet in the process." He didn't stop eating his food at all, looking as if talking about the weather.

Sakura felt like she wanted to find a hole and climb into it and never come out. She wanted so badly to tell Naruto to shut up, but bitter truth in his words stopped her from doing it. She would be lying to herself that she did not know what Naruto was talking about.

Naruto kept a careful eye on the pink haired girl. Now that she had seen her situation laid bare in front of her instead of being buried deep inside her mind, it was time to let her know of the consequences.

"Now look at yourself. You don't have the physique required for a strong kunoichi, your neglect of training means you have no grasp of the basic skills to improve further upon them. Your weapon throwing is mediocre at best. All you have is excellent chakra control but let's face it, you aren't the only one who does. Kakashi-sensei said that you are a genjutsu-type, but you don't know any genjutsu, nor can you dispel one, as proven in the bell test. In short, one hit is all what anyone needs to take you out," he finished his meal and was now looking straight at her. He won't stop now, Sakura needed to hear this. It was time she faced the facts.

Sakura was barely keeping from bursting out in tears. Everything Naruto said was true and while she hated to admit it, the facts made her sound pathetic. Ever since the academy, she had only increased her efforts in impressing Sasuke instead of bettering herself. She had repeatedly told herself that Sasuke would save her whenever she would be in danger. Her being with Sasuke on the same team only reinforced that belief. But in the C-rank turned A-rank, she felt for the first time, that she was the one who was utterly useless on their team. What was worse, was that she did not do anything to change it after returning, still hoping to get together with Sasuke.

'_O-One hit?! Am I really that pathetic and useless?' _She knew the answer to that question. While she did have some natural strength, it was useless to her if she did not know how to use it. Naruto and Sasuke were strong too, but what made them strong that they had the strength to take a hit and get back up, only to dish it back with even greater ferocity.

Sakura could dish it out, and even that was questionable, but couldn't take the punishment. She couldn't take a punch to her gut and have the strength to get up.

Naruto had been quietly watching Sakura and he had to say, the girl looked just one more truth away from bursting into tears. He had, while Sakura was wallowing in guilt, quietly motioned Sasuke to leave. The dark-haired boy had looked outraged that Naruto was waving him away like a servant and had almost tore into him when he saw the serious and somber look in his eyes.

Naruto had mouthed to him that Sakura would be heartbroken if she were to learn that Sasuke saw her in her moment of weakness. So he quietly finished his food and went outside, leaning against the wall and waiting for them.

Now that the tough part of learning about the consequences was over, it was time for some motivation. He changed the topic of the conversation.

Idly spinning the chopsticks between his fingers, he said, "I saw team ten the other day." He quietly cheered when he saw the tiny spark of interest in her eyes. On team ten was Sakura's rival, Ino.

"O-Oh?"

"Yeah, and Ino challenged me to a spar. Can you believe that?" he gave an amused shake of his head.

Sakura too, gave a small chuckle at that. Ino had no chance of defeating Naruto when Sasuke had trouble just trying to match him.

"She was a bit less pathetic than you, but pathetic all the same. Isn't she your rival, Sakura?"

By now, she found it easier to concentrate on the conversation than her guilt. "Ye-Yes, she is."

Naruto adopted a look of confusion, "Then why are you not trying to beat her? You don't want to lose Sasuke to her, right?"

That _**did**_ catch her attention, because her eyes now held a little panic, "Wh-What do you mean by losing Sasuke?"

Naruto debated whether to tell her or not. This was the true key to motivating a person with a rival: bring a common goal in between them. Ino and Sakura were still competing for Sasuke's attention, which was the perfect way for him to take advantage and motivate her.

He fully turned to face her, "You might not know this, but Sasuke's the last Uchiha alive who is still loyal to Konoha and as such, he has to repopulate his clan. You know what _**that**_ means, right?" He gave her a pointed look.

A dark blush came over her face, but she nodded. She couldn't believe how Naruto could talk about _**it **_without feeling the least bit awkward. She didn't know that he did, but he just hid his awkwardness better than others.

Naruto continued, "To do it, he will need strong women in the future. It all comes down to this: If you don't get strong enough, he will pick Ino over you and you will be left behind."

The desired effect was achieved when he saw a fire light up in her eyes. Yep, she definitely couldn't stand losing to Ino. Oh, he almost forgot…

"One more thing. The answer to your question: You won't. There is no one to tell you that you are ready. It's a leap of faith." He got up and put some money on the counter. "That's all it is Sakura; a leap of faith," he softly finished. Just before he left, he saw something he had definitely not seen in her eyes ever before.

Fierce determination.

Unknown to the team, Ayame and Teuchi were quietly listening in on their conversation. By the end of it, Ayame looked amazed at the way Naruto had successfully managed to motivate her. _'He was born to be a leader. I know it,'_ she thought with a smile.

Teuchi was smiling like he was the proudest man in the world. He had been attending to Naruto for years and he always knew that Naruto was destined for great things. After witnessing firsthand Naruto's motivational speech, it only reinforced what he already knew.

'_Naruto, you will become a great… no, the greatest Hokage this village has ever seen.'_

Walking out, he immediately silenced Sasuke who opened his mouth, no doubt to rant at him for bringing him into this, and motioned him to follow him. They jumped onto the opposite rooftop and crouched.

"What are we waiting for?" Sasuke whispered.

"Just watch," Naruto said, pointing to the ramen bar. A few moments later, Sakura walked out and Sasuke could definitely see that she was different.

Her fangirl was still visible in her eyes, but was now overshadowed by a fierce look of determination.

He watched, amazed that she did not even seem to look for him, instead, turning around and heading towards the training grounds.

He turned to his blonde comrade, who was watching Sakura go away with a smile and no small amount of self-satisfaction. "What did you do?" Hell, even his voice was filled with stupefaction.

Naruto gave an innocent shrug, the smile still on his face, "Nothing, just pointed her in the direction of success."

He left after that, leaving a speechless Sasuke behind.

XXXXXXX

Naruto was just roaming around the training grounds, having finished his training fifteen minutes ago. He felt really good after motivating Sakura to become stronger today.

Just as he was turning to leave, he sensed it. Three chakra signatures, two hundred meters away. One was was average, other a bit above average and the last, which was faintly familiar, only a bit above a civilian's.

He had already sent a few clones home to prepare dinner and since there was still time, why not train his stealth skills a bit.

He jogged on his toes, cautious not to make any sound. When he was just fifty meters away, he stopped and made a half ram seal. A puff of smoke later, a small, light brown fox was standing in his place. Lowering his chakra signature by a significant margin, he moved forward.

'_This should allow me to get close,' _he thought as he hid two trees away from the the chakra signatures.

"-you heard? The upcoming chunin exams will have rookies for the first time in five years."

The fox's eyes narrowed. _'I know that voice. It's Rock lee, the kid I met during one of my morning rounds!'_

"No way. The jonins must be trying to look good," another voice joined in. This one held confidence, bordering on over-confidence.

Lee spoke again, "Three of them are from Kakashi's unit as well, you know."

The last voice finally spoke. But unlike the previous two, this held a sort of arrogance not unlike Sasuke's, "That's interesting."

"Either way," the girl spoke, who Naruto finally identified as Tenten from the Higurashi weapons shop.

"That's quite pitiful for them," the arrogant voice spoke as if he already knew who was going to win.

Naruto decided that was enough and turned to go back, but he cursed when he stepped on a twig. He could not even sense, since he would be molding chakra and alerting them was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Don't worry," the arrogant one spoke, "It's just a fox."

Naruto inwardly sighed in relief and ran away and did not turn back into himself until he was out of the training grounds. The thought didn't cross his mind that how did he know that it was only a fox.

'_One thing is for sure. These chunin exams will definitely be interesting.'_

XXXXXXX

Six days passed and it was the day of the chunin exams. Sasuke and Naruto had arrived at the academy, and Naruto could tell; Sasuke was fired up like anything. The only one left to arrive was Sakura.

They were simply waiting outside the gates when Sakura arrived. And there was something visibly different about her.

She looked like usual, but her posture had a confidence that both of them hadn't seen before. Naruto looked into her eyes and smiled at what he saw.

Resolve.

Resolve to see this through, and she didn't look the least bit uncertain. "Good morning Naruto, Sasuke-kun," she greeted.

Sasuke, for his part, hid his surprise just barely. Whenever she greeted him, she did like a fangirl. Now, she looked just like a determined kunoichi.

"Good morning Sakura," Naruto greeted with a nod. Sasuke just gave his customary grunt.

"Let's stop wasting time in greetings and go," he ordered curtly, striding inside without even waiting for them. Sakura gave an amused look to Naruto, who just shrugged in a way that said, 'What can you do?'

They caught up to him and ascended the stairs, silently and focused. The sound of a crowd caught their attention and they went to investigate.

Upon arriving at the scene, they stared in surprise at the large crowd. What the hell was going on?! Then Naruto sensed the genjutsu over the whole corridor and narrowed his eyes.

In front of them were two guards who looked suspiciously familiar. Naruto narrowed his eyes at them and it suddenly came to him, causing him to resist a facepalm. Who were Izumo and Kotetsu trying to fool with that obvious Henge?

Sasuke nudged Sakura, "This is only the second floor, isn't it?"

Sakura looked at him in surprise. Sasuke never, ever talked to her so actively. She looked at Naruto, who gave her a thumbs up.

She turned to Sasuke and spoke confidently, "Hai, since we've only climbed two floors. This is obviously a genjutsu."

Sasuke then nodded to himself and started walking to the crowd, mostly to show off by proclaiming that a genjutsu of this caliber does not fool him. But a hand to his shoulder caused him to turn around and glare at Naruto, who was shaking his head.

"The people over there still haven't noticed that they are still just on the second floor," he said softly. "This is probably a test designed to weed out the weaklings, so let's just slip by, nice and quiet," he suggested.

Sasuke found that this was becoming quite frequent. Him going off to do something, Naruto stopping him and giving a suggestion, Sasuke agreeing, albeit grudgingly that the suggestion was better and following Naruto. Even now, Naruto's suggestion was strategically better. Reducing the competition meant their chance of winning was higher.

To be completely honest, Sasuke was jealous of Naruto. He was jealous of his strength, his skills, his natural charisma, the way that leadership seemed to fit with him like a glove, how it came to him so naturally. Obviously, his own desire to be at the top and be leader clashed with Naruto's. He could not stand to remain second best, especially to Naruto of all people.

Clenching his fists in his pockets, he nodded and as one, quietly slipped through the crowd and took the stairs to the third floor.

As they were heading to 301, a voice came from above them.

"Hey, you, the one with the dark eyes. Please wait!"

They all turned and looked above to see a kid wearing a tight, green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers. His black hair had a bowl cut style and he had amazingly thick eyebrows. He was looking at Sasuke.

Naruto rose an eyebrow at him, _'What is Lee playing at?'_

Lee jumped down to their level and it was only then he recognized Naruto. He gave off a blinding grin, "Naruto-kun! What a youthful surprise to see you here!"

Sakura and Sasuke gave Naruto mildly horrified looks. They didn't know that Naruto knew this weirdo.

As for Naruto, he just took a page from Kakashi's book and gave a lazy wave in a lazy voice. "Yo."

It turned out be the wrong thing to say, as Lee cried out while shaking a fist. "What hip and cool attitude! Your flames of youth seem to have diminished since the last time we met!"

Naruto shrugged and decided to intervene in case Lee takes off on a tangent, "So Lee, why did you stop us?"

Lee suddenly sobered and turned to Sasuke, "Sorry, I got distracted. My name is Rock Lee, and I wish to challenge this year's prodigy, Uchiha Sasuke to a fight."

Sasuke replied back coldly, "And why should I give you the time?" He gave a once over and found him lacking any sort of strength whatsoever. He, however, didn't like the way Lee called him a prodigy. A prodigy should stand out of a crowd, and the title felt cheap because Naruto was stronger than him.

Lee smiled, "I am the strongest Konoha genin right now. A test for myself, and to see if you're as good as everyone says you are."

Sasuke smirked, causing Naruto to sigh in resignation. Just a mention of a fight was enough to get Sasuke's blood pumping.

Ten minutes later, he found himself looking at a beat up Sasuke and wondered if it was a mistake or did Sasuke deliberately underestimate Lee. Judging from appearance, Lee was nothing special. But apparently, Sasuke had never heard the phrase, _"Appearances can be deceiving."_

Lee had _**absolutely **_dominated the fight, even when Sasuke had activated his sharingan. All throughout the fight, Sasuke had been trying to just find Lee, because he was _**unbelievably **_fast. Of course, Naruto had easily followed Lee's movements, because he himself had surpassed that speed with his resistance seals activated at level 11 long ago. He closely observed that even when Sasuke had just begun to react fast enough, he was smashed by Lee's superior taijutsu skills and pure speed.

Just when Lee was about to end the fight, it was ended by a talking turtle of all people.

"Lee! That technique is forbidden!" He yelled at him.

Lee bowed his head in apology, "I'm sorry…I got carried away." The turtle glared at Lee, causing him to flinch. "B-But I wasn't planning to use the r-reverse version…"

"Baka!" the turtle exclaimed, causing Lee to flinch again. "You think that excuse will work?! You should know what it means for a shinobi to expose his move."

While the turtle was busy reprimanding Lee, Naruto glanced over to see if Sasuke was alright, but he wished he hadn't.

Sasuke had a look of absolute loathing on his face as he glared at Lee and the turtle. _'I…..I lost to that weirdo?!' _He looked over to Sakura and saw that she was still shocked at the pure speed that Lee displayed. Looking over to Naruto, he resisted the urge to roar in rage.

Naruto was looking bored, just as he was before the fight. There was not a single trace of alarm or fear that Sasuke could see. Which meant only one thing: Naruto was certain…..no, _**absolutely **_confident that he could take on Lee and win.

'_Just how strong is he?! He doesn't look alarmed in the least. That means he __**knows **__he is stronger and faster than the weirdo! He knows he could counter Lee's every move whereas I couldn't even follow that guy! Is Naruto even in the same league as the rest of the genin?! How can I, with the sharingan, still not match up to him?!' _were the thoughts rushing through his head. He hated being weaker than anyone.

He turned his attention back to the turtle, who said, "Gai-sensei will take care of your punishment."

An explosion of smoke erupted on the turtle's back and when it cleared, an adult version of Rock Lee was seen standing in a ridiculous pose. "Geez, you guys are the epitome of the springtime of youth!"

To say team seven was freaked out was an understatement. They were _**shell-shocked **_at his appearance. Even Naruto was looking a bit alarmed, with Kurama screaming in his mind to make it stop. If Lee were just a few years older, no one would be able to tell the difference between him and Gai.

"Lee, you fool!" Gai shouted at him, punching him in the jaw so hard that Lee flew back. Lee quickly recovered, though.

Gai then proclaimed, "For breaking the rule and fighting before the exam, you must complete 500 laps around Konoha before sundown!"

The whole of team 7 gaped at the absurdity of the challenge, believing it to be nothing more than a joke. However, they were further shocked into disbelief at Lee's reply.

"Hai Gai-sensei!" Lee's eyes were burning at the challenge. Probably at how much youthful it was, Naruto mused.

Naruto decided to intervene before even more weirdness took place. "Excuse me, but don't you think that you should focus on the chunin exams right now?"

Gai-sensei turned to them for the first time, looking a bit sheepish. "Oh, my bad…."

Turning to Lee, he coughed in his hand and said, "Lee, you will fulfill your punishment after the chunin exams, got it?"

Lee stood at attention, "Hai, Gai-sensei!"

Gai then turned to the other team, "Ah, so you guys are from Kakashi's team?"

Sasuke rose an eyebrow condescendingly, "You know Kakashi?"

Gai chuckled as he rubbed his chin, "Kakashi and I are eternal rivals! I am leading currently, with my 50 wins to Kakashi's 49." The whole team seven sweat dropped at that.

Lee jumped in, "Isn't Gai-sensei the greatest?"

Sasuke was studying Gai intensely, looking at the empty space…wait, what?

He and Sakura suddenly turned around to face Gai, who had gotten behind them so fast that not even a blur was visible. But Naruto showed no signs of surprise, having followed him with his eyes. Gai had only used low jonin level speed right now. He knew that Gai had barely put effort in getting that fast to get behind them. While he could do it as well if he took his seals off for now, he would be destroyed in a contest of speed if Gai went full speed.

There was only so much speed his twelve year body could go at before reaching a limit.

Sasuke was looking at Gai with wide eyes along with Sakura. _'This guy….he's definitely faster than Kakashi!' _he thought with a grimace. Rage filled him once more, _'Damn it! How many people are there that I have to surpass to become capable of defeating __**him**__?!'_

"Anyways, you guys should head to the room. Your exam is to begin soon. Good luck!" Turning to Lee, he flashed a grin and a thumbs up, "Do your best, Lee! Bask in the springtime of youth!" He disappeared after that.

Lee began to wrap his bandages up, but just before he left, he turned to Sasuke, "Sasuke-kun, I apologize for lying before. I am not the strongest Konoha genin, it is my teammate. I entered this exam to defeat him, and you are one of my targets as well! Please prepare yourself, and I wish you all the best!"

After Lee finally walked away, Naruto carefully observed Sasuke. His fists were clenched tight, along with gritted teeth and a look of frustration and rage on his face.

Naruto clenched his own fists and raged in his mind. _'Who does he __**think **__he is?! Why does he keep thinking that he is the only one who is strong and the rest are weak?!' _He kept his face carefully neutral as he faced Sasuke.

"What's wrong, Sasuke?" He was careful to keep his voice level. He didn't even flinch when Sasuke faced him, a look of barely contained rage on his face.

"Shut up! I'll slaughter him next time!" he promised. Naruto only rose an eyebrow, "We are in the middle of an exam, which means there is little time, sorry, _no time _for you to get better than him. Maybe after the exams, but not now.

"And why were you so angry and frustrated before? Is it so hard to accept that there are people of our age who are stronger and faster than you?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to tell Naruto to mind his own business, but nothing came out. He realized with a growl that what Naruto had said was true. He was brought up with the teachings from his father that the Uchiha are the greatest, and he learned it all with pride.

So it was hard for his pride to accept that there is someone who is stronger, faster than him. Ever since the massacre, he had trained his hardest every day, trying to bridge the power gap between him and _**him**_, just so he could have his revenge. He thought that he had at least become stronger than his peers, only to find out how thoroughly outclassed he was among those of his own age.

Naruto shook his head. One day, Sasuke's superiority complex is gonna blow up in his face. Sasuke was too proud of himself, believing his power was better than others and no one could match him. But pride always had its downfall, and it didn't look like Sasuke's gonna learn that lesson anytime soon.

"Anyway, we should get going. We don't want to be late for the exam," Naruto said as he took the lead, with Sakura following him after giving a concerned glance to Sasuke, who followed the last.

They reached the room, only to see Kakashi leaning against the wall with his head buried in his porn. Kakashi looked at them and closed as book, putting his hands in his pockets.

He gave them a critical look, "Sakura decided to come as well, I see."

Naruto frowned at his statement, "What do you mean by that?" His voice held a hard edge now, warning Kakashi that he better not play with the answers right now.

Kakashi, for his part, didn't take offence at Naruto's tone at all. Instead, he mentally approved of how Naruto spoke. It was clear that he was in the zone, ready to tackle a challenge. He had taken on a mindset of a serious shinobi now, mentally prepared for the challenges to come.

He was also surprised at the lack of uncertainty in Sakura, which he had seen on the day he had given out the chunin forms. Something had happened in between, but whatever it was, he was glad for it.

A mild feeling of disappointment went through him when he saw Sasuke's state. There were light bruises on his face, and he looked like someone had just trampled on his ego. He mentally shook his head; Sasuke was too impulsive when it came to his pride and ego. He could never take any defeat in stride. For all his skills, Sasuke's mix of having both a superiority and an inferiority complex made him, in Kakashi's words, a sore loser.

He shook these thoughts off and focused on answering Naruto. "You are now, officially, registered to take the exams. To tell you the truth, chunin exams can only be taken in teams of three."

"So you lied that it is up to us whether we want to take part in it or not," Naruto stated, eyes narrwoing.

Kakashi nodded seriously, "I did. I feared that if I hadn't, you two would have forced Sakura to take the exams with you. And if only they both had come here and not you, Sakura, I would have turned them away."

He smiled, "But I'm glad that you three came of your own free will, and as a team."

Sakura, unnoticed by Kakashi, gave a small glance to Naruto and smiled, _'It's all thanks to you, Naruto. You washed away my uncertainty.'_

Kakashi moved out of their way, "Go on in, then. Do your best."

They opened the door, and were surprised to see the number of genin taking the chunin exams. And all of them were looking at them.

Naruto put on his game face, which was a neutral scowl. He was internally scoffing at the pathetic amount of killing intent coming their way.

He looked back to see that Sasuke was unaffected as well. Sakura too, if not for the slight bead of sweat on the side of her face. He turned back, absently wondering if he would see any of his peers.

"SASUKE-KUN!"

Naruto flinched, and then sighed. _Kami, _he hated that voice! He turned around just in time to see a blonde missile, Ino hug Sasuke tightly from behind. "It's been so long since I have seen you, Sasuke-kun. I miss your dark looks, you know."

Sakura spoke in a surprisingly normal tone, but serious nonetheless, "Let Sasuke-kun go, Ino-pig!"

Ino glanced at Sakura, mocking her, "I am surprised they let you compete, forehead!"

Sakura gained a tick mark, her voice getting a bit higher, "You leave my forehead out of this!"

Ino just stuck her tongue out at Sakura. Naruto just rolled his eyes at the immature display.

"Oh? You guys are competing in this stupid test too?" Shikamaru's voice came as he approached with Chouji.

Naruto smirked and lightly commented, "I didn't think you had the energy to take this exam, Shika."

The said boy sighed, "It's troublesome, but Ino threatened us with our lives, so we had to."

"Finally found you guys!"

Naruto saw that it was Kiba's voice, who was coming with team eight in tow. Hinata blushed at the sight of Naruto.

"Well, it looks like all the rookies are assembled!"

Shikamaru sighed, "Geez, you guys too?"

Kiba hummed, "I wonder how far we will get, now that all of us are assembled. Eh, Sasuke?"

Sasuke smirked in return, "You seem quite confident, Kiba."

Kiba boasted, "We trained a lot. We won't be losing to you!"

"You guys should be quieter, you know," came a new voice from behind them. They all turned to see a bespectacled teenager with grey hair in a ponytail. He looked almost seventeen, and was wearing a Konoha hitai-ate.

"You guys are rookies just out of the academy, right? You shouldn't be fooling around like that," he said.

Ino took offence to that, "Who the hell are you to tell us that?!"

"I'm Yakushi Kabuto. And just take a look around you," he gently said, not seeming to mind her tone at all.

All the rookies, except for Naruto and Sasuke, tensed up after looking around. They were the focal point of all the attention, and it wasn't the good kind.

"The team behind you is from Amegakure no sato. They have short tempers," he explained. Naruto decided that he had enough of people trying to intimidate him and his team, so he turned the tables.

He didn't exude any killing intent, but simply glared with his eyes. He was very much satisfied to see many of them flinch and why shouldn't they? He had his father's eyes, and his father sent his enemies running in the opposite direction with just a look. These genin stood no chance.

"Kabuto-san, was it?"

Sakura's voice caused him to turn.

"Yes?"

"Is this your second time taking these exams?"

"No, actually it is my seventh," Kabuto admitted, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Wow, you must really suck then!" Kiba's brashness surprised no one.

Kabuto shrugged, conceding the point, "Or maybe the exams are just that hard. To help out, I thought I'd share some info on the other participants with my fellow Konoha nin." He withdrew a thick deck of cards from his weapons pouch. "Who do you want to know about?"

"Give me information on Sabaku no Gaara, Rock Lee and Uzumaki Naruto," Sasuke commanded, desperate for some information on his teammate and the others.

The rookies gave him weird looks, but Naruto glared at Sasuke, who glared back. _'Finally, I get to see just how powerful you really are, Naruto.'_

Kabuto smirked, "You already know their names, which makes it less fun."

Looking at his cards he began reading, "Sabaku no Gaara: His team has completed eight C-rank and wow, a B-rank. It says he's come back from each of them without a scratch! A genin doing a B-rank is highly unusual, but coming back from one without any injury is just unheard of!" This caused all of them to tense up, even Naruto.

"Next is Rock Lee: Konoha genin with a tremendous skill in Taijutsu. His skills in ninjutsu and genjutsu are nil. He is a member of team nine led by Maito Gai as his sensei. His teammates are Hyuga Neji and Higurashi Tenten. He has completed 42 D-ranks and 37 C-ranks. He has been a genin for a year more than you guys."

"Next is Uzumaki Naruto," he said, pulling another card. Though he blinked in surprise when it suddenly disappeared from his hands. Looking up, he saw Naruto holding the card between two fingers.

Sasuke growled and went to snatch the card from him, but Naruto playfully put it out of reach, though there was a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Sorry Sasuke, Kabuto-san, but I don't like my cards to be displayed until the end of the game."

He clapped the card between his hands and when he separated them, only small pieces of the card fell out.

His eyes then narrowed as he looked at Kabuto, "You really shouldn't give out information like that, Kabuto-san. It may come to bite you back one day."

On the inside, he was trying to figure Kabuto out. _'Just who is this guy? Getting information on Lee wouldn't be so hard, but how did he acquire the mission stats of a foreign nin, who is also a jinchuriki, when they can only be accessed by the Kazekage and his council? It's obvious that he knows way too much to be a genin. And why am I getting the feeling of snakes from this guy? I have to inform jiji of this somehow. That type of information opens up the possibility that he is a spy.'_

Kabuto held his hands up in surrender, "I meant no harm Naruto-kun. I just like to gather information is all." Naruto didn't look convinced but gave it a rest.

Kabuto thought, _'Guess I won't be making his job any harder.' _His master would be so disappointed.

Naruto's senses spiked and he caught a movement in the corner of his eyes. His saw a ninja with a headband having a musical note flying through the air, throwing two kunai into the floor in front of Kabuto, who jumped back just in time for another one with the same headband, but had his head covered in bandages, to appear in front of him and taking a swing at Kabuto.

Kabuto dodged, smirking, but his glasses suddenly shattered and he collapsed onto his knees, throwing up.

Three nin, two boys and one girl, stood in front of Kabuto, radiating killing intent.

"Pathetic!" the bandaged one scoffed. "Aren't you supposed to be a four year old veteran?"

Meanwhile, Naruto was trying to figure out what just happened, _'If nothing hit Kabuto, why did his glasses shatter and why the hell did he throw up?! Was it pressurized air?'_

Kurama scowled and spoke from within, **'Think Naruto! What is the symbol on his hitai-ate?'**

Naruto frowned, _'It's a musical note.'_

Kurama prompted him further, **'Music is a form of sound, and how dies sound travel?'**

Naruto replied, _'Through the medium of air….oh,'_ he smirked. _'He manipulated the soundwaves to target the ear and throw off his balance.' _He shook his head, _'Foolish guy. He just gave away his main attack!'_

Naruto turned to see the spiky haired ninja talking, "Write this down on your cards. Three Otogakure ninjas, definite future chunin!"

An explosion of smoke went down in front of the class and a voice was heard. When the smoke cleared, there was a large man wearing a black trench coat, black fingerless gloves and a bandana was standing. His intimidating stature and harsh tone that followed ensured that his words will heeded quickly. _'That is Morino Ibiki, if I'm not wrong. Konoha's top interrogator alongside Yamanaka Inoichi and Anko-sensei's superior,' _Naruto speculated.

"Alright you maggots! Shut the hell up and sit down in your assigned seats! The first part of the exam will begin now! Any fighting will lead straight to disqualification." Pointing to the Otogakure ninjas, he said, "You better stop doing that if you don't want to fail before even the exam starts."

He watched as everyone went to their assigned seats. Once everyone was settled, he began explaining the exam. "This is an exam in which you start off with ten points. There are two rules to this exam. The first rule: This is a team test. Whether you pass or not will be determined by the combined score of your teammates.

Second rule: Anyone caught doing any sneaky activities, namely cheating," he smiled in a sinister way that sent shivers down many people's spines, "will have two points taken off for every offense. You have forty-five minutes. Begin!"

The sound of papers turning sounded for a brief moment. Naruto first inspected where his teammates were seated. To his disappointment, they were seated quite far. Turning his eyes on the test, he raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

'_What type of questions are these? They are no genin level, that's for sure. Which means they want the genin to cheat. This exam is testing our information gathering!' _He gave an impressed smirk at that, but then frowned. _'I may have photographic memory, but it defeats the whole purpose of this test if I write what I know. What to do now?'_

He scanned the room, looking for someone who was confidently filling out the answers at a high speed. He smirked when he saw one sitting in the column to his left, two rows above him.

'_Got him! Now I just have to figure out how to learn his answers…..or maybe, I can just switch our tests!'_

He pondered for over two minutes on what to do, watching his peers cheat. Sasuke was copying answers with his sharingan, Sakura was writing on her own since she knew the answers, Tenten had cleverly altered the ceiling flap to reflect someone's answers. Hinata was using her byakugan, Shino was using his bugs to cheat, Kiba had Akamaru on top of his head, barking his answers to him. Shikamaru did not need to cheat, as he was already smart enough.

'_Got it!'_

First, he would have to scope out the field. He spent the next five minutes watching the invigilators walk, trying to find a pattern. Finally, he found a loophole: There were four columns of students, with all the columns separated. The first invigilator between the first two columns walked with the invigilator between the last two. Ibiki walked in the center of the second and third columns, but he always moved opposite to the other two invigilators. So, there was a point where all three of them were in a row and then they went in the opposite direction of each other. There was a three second interval during which none of them were facing him. After that interval, the three of them would face the class from the respective ends.

Which means, he had three seconds to make his plan work.

Second, know the number of the desk from which he was going to cheat. The test paper didn't have a space to write their names, but a space where they had to write their desk number. So, he deduced that teams will be identified from the number of the desk they were sitting on. Every team had been given specific seats according to the seating plan next to the board. So when Ibiki comes across the papers from the desk numbers eight, twenty-one and twenty-seven, he would know he was looking at the papers of team seven according to the seating plan.

Now that he knew what he needed to know, it was time to act. Counting from now, he discreetly pulled out two smoke bombs during the first interval under the pretense of scratching his back. Maybe it was a bit overkill, but he needed to remain unseen. He waited till the guy was finished writing.

Fifth interval was when shit hit the fan. As soon as the back of the invigilators were turned to him, he wasted no time and threw the smoke bombs onto the floor, one on the right and one on the left.

Roars of anger and panic could be heard throughout the classroom as no one could see their tests. Windows were opened to let the smoke out and once it was cleared, several of them looked confused as nothing had happened to their tests.

Naruto, however, was calmly pretending to keep writing on the sheet on which answers were already filled out. The guy whose sheet he stole had a panicked look on his face when he saw that the sheet in front of him had all the wrong answers written down. There was even a mocking note that said _Better luck next time. _The worse thing was that the sheet in front of him had _his _desk number written on it! There wasn't enough time to erase and write the correct answers all over again!

Yeah, Naruto was not above such petty things from time to time.

Naruto calmly erased the desk number on the sheet he stole and wrote his own down. What had happened was when the smoke spread, Naruto had quickly created a shadow clone that had instantly transformed into a finger-sized version of himself. The clone had taken a hold of his sheet and substituted with the sheet of the guy Naruto had decided to cheat from. By the time smoke cleared, Naruto had already finished his job.

Ibiki was slightly irritated at the ruckus caused. He held his hand up for silence, "Anyone who has lost their sheet might as well get out with your team."

Surprisingly, none of them moved to get up. Ibiki deduced that whoever had done that was only looking out for himself. _'Though I'm interested in learning just who exactly did that….' _he thought as his eyes swept around the room.

His eyes looked at Naruto, who was simply leaned back in his chair, eyes up at the ceiling and an uncaring look on his face. His eyes narrowed the tiniest bit in suspicion. Naruto was well known for his successful pranks all around the village, _'Uzumaki Naruto….he doesn't look bothered in the least. He could be the one…..' _his faced etched back into his neutral expression, _'Then again, he hasn't looked the least bit bothered since the beginning of this test.' _And just like that, he lifted his suspicion off Naruto, continuing to watch the class closely.

Uzumaki pranking code of conduct, rule two: In the aftermath of a prank, throw suspicion off yourself in _any_ way possible.

At the end of forty-five minutes, Ibiki looked at the clock on the wall and nodded to himself. He turned his head to the opened door, through which Kakuro, who had gone through the bathroom, entered.

"Was your doll playing any beneficial?" he asked, smirking.

The puppet user flinched, surprised he had been caught.

"Go sit down," he ordered Kankuro. After he was seated, Ibiki started emitting a sadistic aura. "TIME UP! You now have a choice presented to you: To either take the tenth question, or not to take it," he stated, much to the confusion of the genin.

"Choose?!" A familiar voice shouted from the back. Naruto turned to see Temari, who eyes displayed confused anger. "What happens if we choose not to?!"

At that point, Naruto simply stopped caring what Ibiki said. He just kept watching Temari, a small, dreamy smile on his face. Temari caught his gaze and blushed, averting her face and trying to quell the growing blush. _'Why is he staring at me like that?'_

Ibiki chuckled darkly, "If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero. You'll be failed along with your teammate."

Everyone started to shout in protest, but a sudden bout of killing intent from Ibiki silenced them.

"Also, if you choose to take it and answer incorrectly, you will lose the right to ever participate in the future chunin exams!"

Kiba hollered in anger, "What kind of a rule is that?! Genin from before were still able to retake the chunin exams, so why is this exam any different?!"

Ibiki released another dark chuckle, the one gave out when he was being extremely sadistic, "The other genin didn't have me as the proctor. _**My test, my rules. **_Choose, I haven't got all day."

Naruto observed that Ibiki had all the genin quivering now. He waited until several teams had quit to make his move. Lesser the competition, the better their chances, after all.

Giving a wink to Temari, whose blush darkened to cover her entire face, he turned around and stood up, all the playfulness from earlier when he was flirting with Temari vanishing from his face.

Ibiki stared at the blonde, along with all the others, whose face was set in dead seriousness. His eyelids were half drooped, but he still looked entirely serious. "I don't care what happens at all. I have a dream of becoming the Hokage that no one can stop me from achieving. I'll do it even if I have to stay a genin to do so. Do your worst, but know this," he pointed a finger at Ibiki without any fear, "Rank means nothing to me, at all."

Everyone was watching Naruto with disbelief, who never once broke eye contact with Ibiki. Ibiki himself was thrown off by the sheer conviction displayed in the voice and eyes of a twelve year old. Sakura was in awe of Naruto's declaration. Sasuke gave a sigh of relief, for he thought Naruto was going to quit. Each of the rookies, except for one or two, held a newfound respect for Naruto.

The whole room was silent, and everyone that remained had caught every word. And the results were staggering.

Ibiki smirked, _'Heh, he's interesting. He wiped out everyone's uncertainty.' _Looking around the room, he counted how many were remaining. _'57, huh? There are more left than I expected. There's no point in waiting anymore.'_

"Congratulations, you all pass!" Ibiki declared, and hide to fight the smile that threatened to appear on his face at the bafflement of as well as the disbelief of the genin.

"But what about the tenth question?!" A genin from Ame demanded to know.

"That was the tenth question. It was a question to test your will and fortitude. As a chunin, you'll be forced to take tough decisions, and no one needs weak-willed chunin leading their forces to their deaths! By asking this question, you've shown me your determination and willingness to do the best for your villages, even with handicaps," he explained.

Temari spoke once again, "So the other questions were for nothing?!" And once again, she blushed when Naruto turned to stare at her with a smile.

"No, the test was for info gathering….and to see how much balls you all had," he answered, looking in the direction of Naruto, who turned back and gave a graceful shrug.

"This marks the end of the first phase of the chunin selection exams. I wish you luck for the next phase," Ibiki smiled, which was surprisingly pleasant and not all that disturbing.

Before he could say anything else, he caught something from the corner of his eyes and stepped back just in time for a ball of cloth to come crashing through the window. Two kunai flew out of the cloth and stuck to the ceiling, unfurling the cloth, revealing a very familiar purple haired woman wearing a brown trench coat. On the cloth it was written, _**Second Exam Proctor Mitarashi Anko.**_

"You guys! This is no time to be happy!" She exclaimed. "I am the proctor for the second test, Mitarashi Anko! The real exam starts now! Are you ready?!" she shouted and pumped her fist into the air. Ibiki came from behind the cloth.

"Grasp the atmosphere, will you?"

Anko blushed at his deadpan.

Naruto simply sat down and crossed his arms, fondly smiling at her. It had been a while since he saw his sensei and to be honest, he missed her eccentricities.

Anko counted the number of genin left and raised an eyebrow.

"Fifty-seven? Ibiki, you let nineteen team pass? You let them off too easy!" she scoffed.

Ibiki shrugged, "This time, we have quite an interesting bunch."

Anko scoffed and was about to snark back when a familiar mop of blonde hair caught her eye. She smiled proudly when she saw Naruto sitting in the room, fondly smiling at her. As soon as she made eye contact, that smile turned into a smirk and he winked at her.

Anko grinned savagely, now that she knew that her best and only student was in the exams. "You maybe right, Ibiki…" she said.

"However, I'll cut those numbers in half in the second test." That, coupled with her savage grin, was enough to make everyone sweat a little. Naruto just shook his head; his sensei was as intimidating as ever.

"I will explain the details tomorrow. We will go to another place, so ask your jonin sensei about where to go and the time. That is all. Dismissed!"

Everyone stood up to leave, while Anko just smirked and walked in the direction of her former student. Naruto stood up as well, standing just four inches short of Anko's height. He waved his teammates away, who were looking curiously, telling them he will catch up later.

"What's up, brat? I didn't know that you were going to be in this exam!"

Naruto shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets, "Even we didn't know until only a week ago, Anko-sensei."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow, coming to stand with them, "Sensei? So this is the brat Hokage-sama assigned to you?"

Naruto smiled, his whites showing, "Uzumaki Naruto, pleased to meet you. Anko-sensei talked about you occasionally, Ibiki-san. You really did frighten all the genin to death."

Ibiki smirked while Anko scoffed, "If he really had, there wouldn't be nineteen teams left!"

Ibiki jerked a thumb towards Naruto, "You should thank him for that. Brat gave a speech that wiped all the fear I put into them."

Anko puffed up proudly, never minding Ibiki's failure, "Of course he did! He is my student after all! He was born to be a leader!"

Naruto smiled, but turned serious, "Though I do have a concern to raise." His serious tone was enough to catch their attention.

"What is it, Naruto?" Anko asked with a frown.

Naruto said, "It about a genin named Yakushi Kabuto. He seemed to have some sort of information cards that had info, mainly the mission stats and their strengths and weaknesses, on all the genin present. I can believe it if he only had info on the genin of Konoha, but he also had it on the Suna nin, Gaara. Something that should only be known by the Kazekage and his council." He explained all his observations and conclusions to them.

Ibiki and Anko paid serious attention to this and by the end of his explanation, both were frowning heavily. "This is not good," Anko commented.

Ibiki nodded, a hard look on his face, "If what you say is true, we might have a spy in our midst. And having information like that means he has likely been a spy for years. Who knows what kind of information he has now."

Naruto frowned, "Even I'm not that sure. As I said, my own observations led me to this conclusion. Regardless of whether he is a spy or not, such matters have to be investigated for that sort of possibility, don't they?"

Anko nodded, "That is true. This matter will be taken to the Hokage immediately…..by Ibiki."

Ibiki turned on Anko, an incredulous look on his face, "You can't order your superior, you know that right?"

Anko shrugged, putting an arm around Naruto's shoulders, not caring in the least that his face was right next to her….._assets. _"I know, but in the light that my student is in the chunin exams, it is his duty to treat me to dango! Let's go, brat!"

She started walking, not letting go of Naruto, who was struggling to get out of her embrace. Ibiki smiled and shook his head, muttering, "Just this time, I'll let this go."

**Author's note: I know that my setting of the exam room was different, but for Naruto's plan to work, I had to alter it a bit. Also, I just couldn't resist the quote from Spider-verse. Laters!**

**P.S: **

**RHD guest: Listen pal, you obviously did not read chapter 10, or you would have noticed the warnings I put up for the guest readers. If you really wanted to take a pass, the easiest way to do it is to simply ignore the story from the point where you start to dislike it. I don't know why the hell you went with the trouble of wasting your intelligence. You really should not put stress on your body **_**or **_**mind right now. Rheumatic Heart Disease is a terrible thing to suffer from.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14

**Author's note: Wow, so many reviews! I'm positively thrilled! I admit, I really enjoyed the last chapter. Especially the part when I tore into Sakura. Second exam is about begin, which means that Naruto's reveal is coming close. Let's move on to the chapter!**

**P.S: A treat for you guys in this chapter. Enjoy!**

As Naruto stared at the number of dango sticks in front of him, he couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. Back when he was still being trained by Anko-sensei, he had noticed her obsession, more like an addiction, to dango. She was never seen by him without dango, or a dango stick dangling between her teeth. Whenever she was in a good mood, she would always treat him to dango. It was always a very touching gesture for him, so he didn't have the heart to tell her that he preferred Ichiraku ramen.

They had been on the dango stand for over two hours now, and Naruto had told her everything that had happened to him ever since he became a student of Kakashi. He was careful to leave sensitive parts out, such as the massacre on the bridge or that he knew the famous jutsu of the Yondaime.

Anko whistled when he was finished, "Wow, you sure haven't been bored after you became a team member have you?"

Naruto shrugged, "Not if you count doing D-rank missions as exciting. I'll pick a C-rank or training over them any day." He ruthlessly pushed away the memories of repeatedly catching Tora. He would try his utmost to become a chunin, if only to escape from doing that mission again.

Anko hummed, not saying anything else. She avoided any topic that was related to Orochimaru.

Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled, slowly getting up. "Well, it was nice catching up with you sensei, but I gotta rest for tomorrow. I would want to be fully rested for the exam of which you are the proctor of," he said, tweaking between his teeth with the dango stick.

Anko also got up, grinning savagely. "Damn straight. I better not see you losing in this phase. You got that, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled wide and gave a thumbs up, "Loud and clear!"

Anko turned to leave, but seemed to remember something and turned around, "Oh, almost forgot to tell you. Come to the training ground 44 tomorrow at nine o' clock."

Naruto tilted his head, "Wouldn't this be considered cheating on my part to receive information from the proctor, sensei?"

Anko smiled and shook her head, "This is the information your team sensei would be telling you. I'm just saving you the trouble of finding your team or Kakashi. All the best, kid!"

She vanished in a swirl of leaves. Naruto nodded to himself and turned around, heading towards Ichiraku. He felt quite good today in the exam, so celebration was required. Dango was good and all, but it wasn't dinner. Inside his mind, Kurama scoffed, muttering about pathetic excuses to eat unhealthy food.

As Naruto neared the ramen stand, he saw something that caused his heart to skip a beat.

Temari was roaming on the street, apparently taking in the sights. The best fact was that she was _on her own._ None of her brothers were with her, not even Gaara.

He didn't know why, but suddenly his palms started to feel sweaty and his heartbeat seemed to increase. This was his perfect chance of spending some time with her!

'**Go for it, brat,'** came Kurama's encouraging voice. Wow, he and him were on the same page!

His steps automatically began to take him in her direction. Every step felt like he was going too slow, but at the same time, he was going too fast. He had no idea on how to approach her or what to say, but at the same time he wanted her to spend time with him, to enjoy spending time with him.

'**Oi, Naruto! You will not stutter in front of a mere girl! You are **_**my **_**jinchuriki and you won't embarrass me!' **Naruto wanted to tell him that she didn't even know that he was a jinchuriki. And how the hell did that fact relate to what he was about to do?!

He barely kept himself from voicing his thoughts to the fox inside him, forgetting that Kurama could easily read his thoughts. Kurama scoffed and refrained from speaking. He will see how Naruto handles this without making himself look like a fool.

It happened too quickly, but he was standing behind her. She seemed to be unaware that he was standing directly behind her. Steeling up and swallowing up his nervousness, he tapped her shoulder.

Temari finally relaxed after exiting the hotel where she and her brothers were staying. She had known that after their training, she was going to get bored because she had nothing to do. After almost half an hour of arguing, she was able to convince Kankuro to let her leave the hotel. Gaara really didn't care much about what she did and that was one thing she was grateful for. Baki didn't protest much when she told him that she would be able to scout the important locations in this village.

So here she was, wandering the streets and taking in the sights. She had to admit, Konoha was beautiful. All the greenery in the village made it seem like the village actually pulsed with life. The weather here was very pleasant as well, though that could be attributed to the greenery.

As she aimlessly wandered, her thoughts turned to the attractive blonde from before. "Uzumaki Naruto," she tested the word on her lips, her mouth unconsciously turning into a smile. He was certainly attractive, more so than any boy she had seen of her age. He was also quite fearless and charismatic as well, if what he did when the tenth question was asked is anything to go by. That certainly earned him points in her book.

She didn't know if he realized it or not, but he had erased all traces of doubts the intimidating examiner had put into them, including her. Something inside her told her that he knew.

Her hormones seemed to make their presence known, as she turned began to imagine what he looked like without his shirt and jacket on. Her cheeks burned as she realized what she was thinking and rapidly shook her head to clear it of anymore thoughts like those.

'_Why am I thinking such things? I don't even know him!' _Then her thoughts did a complete one-eighty once more. _'Although, I wouldn't mind to get to know him through a date or two….' _She flushed again, though this time she had a smile and didn't try to shake it off.

So lost in her thoughts she was, that she startled a bit when her shoulder was tapped. Mentally cursing herself for getting caught off guard, she turned to see who had tapped her and got frozen in place when she saw the subject of her thoughts right in front of her.

Naruto became a bit confused when Temari turned around and suddenly froze. _'Guess she wasn't expecting to meet me,' _he thought before waving a hand in front of her eyes. "Temari-san, are you alright?"

His voice snapped her back into the present. She saw him looking at her, a curious expression on his face. Regaining control of herself, she smiled and greeted back, "I'm alright Uzumaki-san. I just wasn't expecting to see you here."

She giggled a bit at the sour look that he made, "Please don't call me that. Naruto will do just fine."

She returned an easy smile, "Then you must call me Temari. Being called like that by someone of my age make me feel old."

Naruto didn't know how he was speaking without thinking, "That just won't do now, will it? I wouldn't want to make a pretty lady such as yourself feel old," he returned her easy smile.

Temari felt her face go warm at his response. Not wanting to be looking embarrassed, she folded her arms and turned her face away, a smile tugging at her lips. "Flatterer," she scoffed softly.

Naruto internally grinned. This wasn't hard at all! He didn't have to pretend to be someone he wasn't. He would be thinking up on what to say if he was. The lines and responses just _instinctively _came to him.

Temari changed the topic, "So, what are you doing here, Naruto?"

Naruto put his hands in his jacket pockets, "I am actually on my way to have dinner after talking with my sensei." He then asked a bit hesitantly, "Would you like to join me?"

Temari barely kept from choking on air, but couldn't prevent her eyes from going wide, "W-What?"

Naruto then discovered that repeating his question was exponentially harder, but he managed it without stuttering, "I said, would you like to join me for dinner?"

The smile on his face would have seemed natural to anyone if it wasn't for a drop of sweat rolling down the side of his face.

Temari forced her stopped mind to kickstart. She could not believe it; just a short while ago she was thinking about going on a date with Naruto. And not, not even ten minutes later he was asking her out?!

She regained her wits and asked, stuttering, "A-Are you a-asking me out on a d-date?" Oh, and her beet red face wasn't helping her at all. She was hoping though, that the answer would be yes. She might get to know him a bit better.

Naruto himself felt his face go warm a bit, but he just rolled with it. Shrugging in what he dearly hoped was a natural manner, he said with a smooth smile, "If you want it to be, sure. Let's go with that."

Temari, saying Naruto relaxed, forced herself to relax as well. Crossing her arms, she smirked, "So, where are you taking me Naruto?"

Naruto smirked in return, "You haven't been to the Ichiraku ramen, have you?"

Five minutes later, they were walking in the direction. Naruto was quickly discovering the awkwardness of the silence between them. To make it go away, he picked a topic that both of them could safely converse about without giving away their secrets.

"So, what's the shinobi academy in Suna like?"

And so, the silence was broken and conversation picked off from there. Temari was glad to find out how easy it was to converse with Naruto. His seemingly bored/indifferent attitude, in her eyes, was perfectly suited to him. His tone was very friendly and to her pleasant surprise, she found herself enjoying just talking to him.

"And we have arrived," Naruto announced. Temari looked up to see a small, unassuming ramen shop. It was more of a bar than a shop.

"Quite simplistic, this place is," she commented. Naruto smirked and turned to her, "Don't knock it until you've tried it."

"Yo, Teuchi-ossan!"

A middle aged man turned around, smiling when he saw his favorite customer. "Naruto!"

Temari guessed that Naruto had to be very familiar with him to call him that. The man named Teuchi then spotted Temari standing beside Naruto and his smile widened, "Oh, and who is this lady friend of yours? A girlfriend on a date?"

Teuchi suppressed his chuckles as both the children turned red, the girl more than Naruto. Naruto opened his mouth to speak when Ayame came out of the back, wiping her hands. "Naruto-kun! Who are you? And who is this girl beside you?" She asked a bit bewildered.

Naruto smiled, his blush slowly disappearing, "This is Sabaku no Temari. She is a genin from Suna, here to take part in the chunin exams. As to answer your question, ossan, she's not my girlfriend, but we are definitely on a date," he said the last part while turning to Temari and winking, making the sandy blonde redder than she already was and curse Naruto in her head for being so charming.

Teuchi finally let out his chuckles while Ayame happily sighed. Teuchi asked Naruto, "And you brought your first date to my stand? I'm really honored, Naruto!"

Naruto shook his head as he motioned for Temari to take a seat. He sat beside her and grinned, "Why wouldn't I? Your ramen's awesome!"

Turning to Temari, he smiled, "What will you have, Temari?"

Temari frowned a bit in thought and answered after a moment, "I'll have a Shio ramen, please."

Naruto turned and simply said, "I'll have my usual, ossan."

While the ramen was being prepared, he discreetly checked Temari out out of the corner of his eye. Her posture was full of confidence and from what he could see, there wasn't a single speck of a fangirl in her. She was indeed a serious kunoichi. Glancing at her legs, he noted with appreciation the toned, smooth calf muscles underneath the fishnet. His gaze then snapped upwards to a place that occupies the minds of all teenage boys. Her chest was actually quite developed for her age. If only her top were a bit lower…..

Temari was steadily turning redder and redder as she spotted Naruto checking her out. She did not miss the appreciation in his eyes as he checked out her legs and chest. Her embarrassment finally toppled off the edge and she turned to him with a red face and furious eyes, _**"What**_ _**are you doing?!"**_

She expected him to blush and splutter and fruitlessly try to excuse himself. To her surprise, he did not even blush a little bit. Instead, he smirked and returned a question of his own, "What do _you _think I'm doing?"

Their orders arrived and as Naruto broke his chopsticks, he answered his own question. "I'm checking you out. In both the ways."

Temari's embarrassment turned to confusion at his blunt answer. Taking a bite of her own ramen, she barely refrained from gasping in pleasure. It was delicious! As if the the food was from heaven itself! Suna had nothing as tasty as this!

She heard a chuckle and she opened her eyes to find Naruto's staring at her with amusement. Turning a bit red, she scowled and asked, "What's so funny?"

His reply was quick, "The reaction of everyone who tries the ramen of this stall for the very first time." He chuckled as she swiped at his arm for embarrassing her.

She then addressed his previous statement, "What did you mean when you were checking me out in both the ways?"

Naruto sneaked a glance in front of him and sighed exasperatedly at seeing Ayame and Teuchi trying to eavesdrop not so subtly. He loudly cleared his throat, causing the two to turn away and return to their work, whistling innocently.

He then turned to Temari, who had a faint look of amusement on her face. "Well, the first point of view is that of a shinobi. You are my competitor, which makes it my duty as a shinobi to gather as much information I can about you," he explained, getting a smirk from her.

"Oh, and what have you learned?"

Naruto gulped down the last of his ramen and said, "Well, the only thing that I have come up with is that you have wind release, indicated by the large fan on your back, which you likely use to augment your jutsus. The size of your fan is also an indicator of your preferred type of jutsus. You like to use fuuton on a large scale to overwhelm your opponents."

He then thought for a bit and added, "The size of your fan is an indicator of another thing. That thing is not easy to carry by any means, so your body has to be physically very strong. Especially your upper body, considering the strength required to swing it at a force to generate torrents of wind."

Temari was getting bowled over at how spot on his observation was. She didn't even know it was possible for a complete stranger to learn the full set of anyone's abilities with just one glance. One thing was for sure: Naruto was extremely intelligent and observational. She didn't know anyone of her age who had analytical skills of this caliber. Naruto was turning out to be a very dangerous opponent, now that she thought about it.

Finishing his soup, he smacked his lips and turned to face her, the smile never leaving his face. "Of course, to everyone it's blatantly obvious that you prefer using your fan than tai or genjutsu. But you must have a good grasp of taijutsu, if not genjutsu, considering the fact that children of Kages have a certain standard to live up to. I'm totally guessing this, but you really don't seem the type to use genjutsu."

Temari was at a loss of words. No genin should have analytical skills like the ones Naruto was displaying. Everything he had stated until now was fully true. Something in the last statement caused her to ask a question, but her voice held awe, "Wait, you mean everything you've just said was based on pure observation except for the last statement?!"

Naruto rested his elbow on the counter and smirked, nodding. "Observation and the conclusion that I can derive from those observations. Of course, to derive those conclusions, I have to know my facts so I can suit my theories to them."

Temari looked at her empty bowl, muttering so low that Naruto almost didn't catch it, "You're really good at that."

Naruto grinned, "I better be! I have been practicing that for a while now."

"And what's the second view?"

Naruto's tone turned purely innocent, "Oh you know, how boys check out hot girls." That earned him a swipe to his shoulder, but there was no heat behind it and the twitching corners of her mouth gave her away.

Paying for both of them, despite Temari's protests, he bid the father and daughter goodnight and they both left.

"I have to say, this date wasn't half bad," she smirked while walking alongside him. He was escorting her back to her hotel. She had to admit, it was incredibly cute of him.

Naruto nodded, putting his hands in his pockets, "I have to agree on that. For a date in the middle of chunin exams, it wasn't bad at all."

They talked a bit more and when they finally reached her hotel, Temari turned to Naruto and smiled genuinely, "Thank you for the date, Naruto. It was really fun, not to mention the great food."

Much to her surprise, Naruto actually looked embarrassed at the praise. He rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish look, "Aw, you're embarrassing me."

Then he smiled back at her, "Seriously though, I too had fun going on a date with you."

An awkward silence descended upon them again as neither knew how to properly say goodbye.

'_Chuck it,' _Naruto decided. In move that surprised Temari, he leant forwards and pressed a light peck to her cheek, just near the corner of her mouth. "Good night," he muttered before vanishing.

He did it so fast that it did not even register to Temari when he left, and how he had left. She just kept staring off into space, a blank look on her face. When she did recover, a massive blush appeared on her face as she smiled and rubbed the corner of her mouth where he had kissed.

She wanted to be angry that he had kissed her without her consent, but it was a very sweet gesture and not to mention, the perfect end to their date. _'He is bold, that's for sure,' _she thought before going up to her room, a happy and dreamy smile on her face.

She wouldn't mind another date with him.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had, for the first time in a long time, a sleep filled with dreams that were actually pleasant. He and Temari were on a beach, with Temari wearing some _really skimpy _bikini. He was this close to kissing her when his body alarm rang and woke him up.

He rarely ever groaned while waking up, because that dream was close to reaching the best part. _'Then again, you rarely ever get to see the best part in those type of dreams,' _he thought wistfully. Getting out of the bed, he proceeded to do his morning rituals and head onto the roof. He needed his mind to be in a state of hyper focus. He could not afford any distractions today.

Creating a shadow clone to restock his equipment and make breakfast, he flipped onto the roof and sat down in a meditative state. For an hour, he proceeded to calm down and focus his mind on a single objective: to succeed. He mentally went through every piece of information he had read and come up with over the years, every tactic, strategy, everything. When he opened his eyes, all the grogginess was gone, replaced by intense focus and determination.

He proceeded to review the memories that suddenly came from his dispelled clone. He nodded satisfactorily how the both of his hip pouches and thigh holster were stocked.

Both pouches were stocked with ample kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, both the normal and tandem explosive tags, flash tags, ninja wire, soldier pills and sealing scrolls, both storage and blank.

Tying his spiky hair back neatly, he finished dressing up and sat down for breakfast his clone had prepared for him. He swiftly finished his breakfast and and washed his plate. Looking up at the clock, he saw that he had half an hour to the exam.

'_Time to leave,' _he decided. After closing the door to his apartment, he activated the security seals and left. He walked at a comfortable pace to the training ground 44. Upon arriving, he saw that the genin were still assembling.

"Naruto!"

The call made him turn, spotting his two teammates coming. Sasuke and Sakura looked determined more than ever. He waved back.

Ten minutes after they had all assembled, a burst of smoke in front of the crowd revealed Anko in all her glory.

"Look sharp, greenies! Welcome to training ground 44, otherwise known as the forest of death." She introduced with a sinister flair mixed with dramatics. She had her trademark, bloodthirsty showing, making some of them sweat and the rest feel anxious.

"For the second part of the exam, the objective is to retrieve and protect. But first, you all are going to sign these papers if you want to take part in this portion of the exam," she said, waving a bunch of papers in her hand.

As they were handed the papers, Naruto raised an eyebrow at the large letters 'FORM OF CONSENT' printed on top. He quickly read it and signed it, just in time to heat a genin across the group call out.

"What do we need to sign these for? We obviously have to take the exams!"

Anko easily dismissed the statement and explained with a breezy smile, "Oh, that's your agreement to accept all the risks in the forest, so your respective villages don't blame me and by extension, Konoha for all your deaths, get it?"

Next to him, Sakura shivered at the words, but when he looked up she had signed the form and looked forward with a steady gaze.

"Alright, listen up or you're going to die before even reaching the halfway mark. One member of each team will take the forms to the row of tents over there, where the forms will be exchanged for a scroll. Some will get a heaven, some will get an earth scroll. You need both, and you need to get both of them to the tower in the middle of the forest in order to pass," she explained. Somehow, her tone turned even more serious after that.

"Of course, you also need all your teammates to pass upon arrival. You must also not open the scrolls until you get there," she glared at everyone gathered, daring them to disagree with her.

Ino raised her hand, "What happens if we open them in the forest?"

Anko smirked, "Something unpleasant….for you and your team."

Naruto gave his form to Sasuke, who also took Sakura's form and went over to get a scroll for them. As he walked away, Naruto decided to scope out the competition…and nearly choked upon sensing the massive chakra signature some distance away.

It was easily as big as his own, perhaps even bigger, not to mention unusually potent. And he almost retched at how much malice it contained. Zabuza did not come even remotely close to what he was sensing now. Gaara, but only perhaps. Discreetly, he gazed in its direction from his peripherals and found out who it was.

It was a kunoichi from Kusa, and she was gazing in their direction with a strange look on her face. Naruto immediately averted his eyes and analyzed what he knew.

'_Okay, that was no ordinary chakra signature. No genin can have a chakra pool _that _large, not to mention it is simply impossible for an average genin to let out such a malicious feeling from their chakra. Her chakra though…we will have to be extremely careful of how we proceed,' _he thought as Sasuke came back with a heaven scroll.

Sakura jolted with realization, "This test is designed to cut our numbers in half-only half of us can go to the next round!"

"You're right…. pinkie. We can't have weaklings being chunin, so we gotta weed out. Now that everyone has a scroll, you also have a time limit-five days only. If you run out of time, try again next year."

Chouji looked very upset, "What will we do for food?!"

"The forest is full of food! Giant, juicy bugs and large predators that will eat you first if you don't eat them," Anko absently waved her hand. Poor Chouji looked ready to cry.

"Can we quit?" Shikamaru asked, wincing as Ino hit the back of his head.

Anko scowled, "Hell no! You think you can just quit in the middle of a mission? You want to quit, hurry up and die!"

"Line up at the gates and be ready!" she shouted, pointing towards the gates surrounding the forest. As team seven walked up to the gates, Naruto put his hands around his teammates' necks and pulled them close. Sasuke grunted at the sudden action.

Sakura almost shrieked, "Naruto-"

"Look, stay quiet," his harsh whisper shut her up. Even Sasuke perked up. Naruto was being unusually serious. "Listen, don't look openly but see the Kusa kunoichi?"

He didn't wait for them to look, "First things first, if you see her, _run or fly, _I don't care what you do but do whatever you can to get the _fuck away from her. _There's no way she is a genin. Same goes for the team of Suna. You see that redhead, you. Run. Away," he emphasized, looking directly at Sasuke, a storm blowing in his eyes

Sasuke would have normally disregarded Naruto's words, but the urgency and unusual harshness with which he said caused to have second thoughts. He trusted Naruto's abilities as a sensor, so if he was saying something like this so seriously, he would not question it.

Naruto saw Sasuke silently nod and turned to Sakura for the same. She looked shaken, but gave a nod as well.

As they faced the gates, Naruto turned to look around one last time. He caught Shikamaru's serious look, who turned away and concentrated on his own entrance. He caught Temari's eye, who to his surprise, did not blush, but give him a nod for best of luck. He returned it with one of his own.

He saw Anko looking at him with a grin. Holding up a thumbs up, she mouthed "All the best!" before she prepared to give the signal.

"Contestants ready….set…GO!" She shouted in a giddy voice as all the gates opened simultaneously. All the genin shot in with the intent to win.

Team seven took up a three point formation, with Naruto in the front and Sasuke and Sakura in the behind. The two of them acknowledged Naruto's sensing abilities so this way, Naruto would be the first to sense something.

"We should really come up with a working plan for the duration of this test," Naruto said as he flipped over a branch.

"Fine, down there in the clearing," Sasuke ordered, and they descended to the clearing he spoke of, hidden behind a log.

"Let's make this quick, because the air is quickly becoming saturated with our opponents' smells," Naruto commented, sniffing around with his nose.

Sasuke spoke up, "My plan is simple- find and ambush a weaker team for their Earth scroll and high tail it to the tower. We take brakes sparingly, even at night."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the last point, "Even at night?"

Sasuke tilted his head, "I was counting on your superior night vision."

Naruto acknowledged his point, "While that is good and all, we would have to stick to the ground for you two to avoid face planting into a branch. I can also see a weakness to this plan though. While being on the ground gives us room to run, we would be more vulnerable to attacks from those who can use earth jutsu, not to mention other teams who might possibly follow a similar plan," he speculated.

Sasuke blinked at how quick Naruto was able to point out the faults in his plan. He was about to suggest something else when Naruto spoke again, "But we will follow it, since I can't think of anything better right now. But you are forgetting something, Sasuke."

"What is it?"

Naruto smirked, "We have a great opportunity to use my shadow clones to their full advantage. I can look for Earth scrolls with them, but we would have to find a safe place to wait. Once we get both the scrolls, I can make up the decoys and divide them between me and Sakura, while you take the decoys."

Sasuke thought about it for a moment, black eyes flickering to the ground before looking up directly into the blonde's eyes. "Sounds good, Uzumaki. But where can we hide?"

Sakura spoke up for the first time, "Sasuke-kun, we can hide high up in the topmost part of the trees."

Sasuke rose an eyebrow, "How is that a good hiding spot?" He was surprised that she did not blush once when he spoke to her.

"Konoha will be expected to be hidden in the trees, but since we know that as well, our enemies will count on us to be on the ground. They would never guess that we will be hidden right above them."

Naruto nodded. It was a good plan for a temporary hide-out. "Fine, we will do that. I'll make my clones and send them away first." He held a half ram and without a wisp of smoke, forty shadow clones appeared, and disappeared to perform their tasks just as quickly.

They settled down at the highest level of a tall tree. Naruto spread his senses out, not wanting to be off guard for even a moment. He took out his spare scrolls and sealing supplies and began preparing the decoys. "Remember, as they look for the scroll, they will also be gathering info on the teams to see whether they are weak or strong. As soon as their memories come back to me, I'll go through them to single out the best path for us to go through."

"You're pulling a lot of weight," Sakura said with some concern. Naruto smirked, but stayed silent.

As he finished the decoys, a sudden influx of memories caused his eyes to widen in alarm. His teammates looked at him urgently, with apprehension on their faces. Something had spooked him, and they didn't know many things that could spook the strongest member of their team.

He whipped around to glare at them, and they almost flinched at the coldness in his eyes. "I'll repeat this, Sakura, Sasuke. If you see the Suna team, _run away. _You see the kunoichi from Suna, _sprint, fly, disappear- _I don't care what you do, but avoid confrontation with her at _any cost_. Is that understood?!" He glared at them even more coldly, in order to get his seriousness of the statement across.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Why, why is she so-" Naruto cut him off with a wave of his hand. Face serious, he said, "It's just better if you trust me on this one, Sasuke. Now…"

His expression became neutral once more, "I found a team for us to ambush. Remember the team from Ame? They are a mile away from us, northeast. If we hurry, we can catch them before their argument of who gets the fake and real scrolls ends."

Sasuke looked at him sharply for switching topics, but didn't push for any more info. He took the lead this time to their target.

Just as they stopped behind a large tree, Naruto informed him, "The real scroll is with the middle one."

Sasuke said, "Alright. Naruto, do you have a plan?" He had accepted the point that it was better if Naruto made the plans between them. Naruto's plans followed utmost discretion in these type of situations, which is what they needed right now.

Naruto nodded, soundlessly forming three shadow clones. "Sasuke, you remember how Kakashi-sensei buried you in the bell test? That is what these three will do. In case one of them escapes, you and Sakura will take care of them."

Sasuke as well as Sakura gaped at him, "THAT is the best you have?!" He barely refrained from lashing out because the plan was all kinds of stupid. Naruto smirked in a way that did nothing to comfort the black haired avenger.

"No, but I'm expecting all of them to escape my hold. The decoys I gave you? They are a bit dangerous, so keep a safe distance after giving them away. We will be eliminating the competition _entirely_, you see. I'm falling back in case they see you," he said, preparing to jump the tree.

"Why?!"

Naruto glanced at the pink haired girl, "Every plan should have a backup plan." With that he jumped away.

The clones formed three hand seals and sunk into the ground. Sasuke and Sakura watched with anticipation on what would happen. They were half surprised when all the three evaded capture, but only because Naruto had expected them to.

The one on the left called out, "You wouldn't know subtlety if it hit you in the face, blondie!" He dispelled the clone, with his teammates doing the same. The clones had actually allowed themselves to be dispelled to appear weak. The truth was they had allowed themselves to be detected.

He called out, "You really thought we'd fall so easily to such pathetic plans? Come on out and we might let you live. You cannot escape!"

With an angry scowl, Sasuke jumped down with Sakura by his side, eyes wide and wary. It was all up to Naruto now.

"Where's the blondie?" the Ame nin, who Sasuke suspected was the leader, asked roughly.

Sasuke answered in a tight tone, "He went to find us a hiding spot after leaving us with the clones."

He was absolutely sure that the leader was smirking at them behind his breathing apparatus and said in a mocking tone, "Alright, kids, hand over your scroll."

Sasuke took out the heaven scroll from his pouch and threw it to the leader, who caught it easily.

He sounded pleased. "A heaven scroll! Perfect! It will go perfectly with our Earth scroll. You two: kill them." The two behind him took out their kunai and advanced.

Sakura stuttered fearfully as she took a step back, "Bu-But you said-"

"I said I might let you live, and I decided that I won't. Now hurry up and kill them," he said impatiently.

"TALLY HO!" Came the sound of Naruto's all too joyous roar. Sasuke and Sakura immediately jumped back, but the three Ame nin made the dire mistake of turning in the direction of the voice.

The "heaven" scroll in the leader's hand revealed itself to be a very effective and explosive tag. Sasuke and Sakura, even while being on the ground, were almost blown back a few more feet from the sheer blast. It was a testament to how dangerous the tags Naruto used were.

"That went quite well," his voice came through the smoke. Sasuke and Sakura looked up to see Naruto grinning, Earth scroll in hand. Sasuke just grunted as he stood up.

"I agree." He was a little disoriented from the blast along with Sakura, but they would be alright in a few seconds.

"Naruto? Are they….?" Sakura asked, really not wanting to know.

Naruto nodded, "Of course they are dead. Anyone would be who was standing as close as those three to the tag." He tossed the Earth scroll to Sasuke, "Keep it with yourself. I'll make the decoys."

As Sasuke and Sakura covered him, Naruto dropped to his knees and took out his sealing supplies. He steadily inked out the seals for the next two minutes, adding a seal to make the scrolls look exactly like the real one, along with a few other additions.

"Alright," Naruto sighed as he packed up his sealing supplies. Handing over the new fakes to Sasuke, who looked confused. Naruto explained, "Change of plans. You are sticking with the fake scrolls, me and Sakura will keep the Earth and Heaven. Remember, there is an addition to the fake scrolls. The new ones that I gave you now are smokescreens, so be careful not to mix them up."

Sasuke nodded and pocketed the scrolls, giving his blonde teammate a nod of thanks. "Ok, same formation as before. This time, we won't be stopping until we reach the tower."

They went through the trees again, with Naruto setting a comfortable pace so as to allow the other two to keep up. He could have used _shunshin _to get them to the tower faster, but this was a good opportunity to check out any team they come across for the next phase of the exam.

It wasn't too long before problems rose. Naruto tensed as he sensed the very familiar, _evil _chakra heading their way, and _fast. _And it wasn't alone.

"Move people, we have a tail," he ordered as he picked up the pace. Sakura and and Sasuke tensed and picked up their pace as well. Naruto motioned for Sasuke to switch positions, as if they were caught up with, Naruto would be able to distract them.

Naruto took a glance behind when he flipped over one of the branches. No one was behind them, but Naruto knew that whoever was following them would be catching up with them anytime now.

Gritting his teeth, he summoned a ninety-nine shadow clones, all of which transformed into the replicas of the original team 7. "Move, dammit _move!" _he hissed sharply.

The clones took off in different directions, each fake team splitting up. _'Though I suspect it won't be enough,'_ he grimly thought. He ordered his team, "Alright, just for a short while, move like your ass is on fire! Let's go!" They kicked into high gear and as far away as possible.

He was somewhat relieved when the large signatures got off their backs. Keeping his senses open, he sensed that the signature was far enough that they could take a short break. He signaled his team to stop on a branch.

"I know who was following us now," he revealed as he gulped down some much needed water along with with the others. When the other two looked at him, he said, "One of them was a giant snake that only seemed interested in making me its meal. The other is the bitch from Kusa that I warned you about. She has wiped out ten of the thirty-three team, and she is mad. Bottom line, we need to reach the tower _fast. _So hold on!"

When the two gave him questioning looks, he sighed impatiently and said, "I'll use the _body flicker _to move us. Now come on!" He almost yelled.

They grabbed each of his shoulders tightly so they wouldn't be left behind. Naruto was just about to form the ram seal when his danger sense exploded.

He hadn't even molded the chakra for a _shunshin, _so he instinctively flash stepped to avoid the attack that _obliterated _the branch they were on.

Reaching the ground, the other two released their hold and got into stances. Sakura was shaking at how close she was from getting blown to pieces. It was only thanks to Naruto's speed that they were able to avoid that.

Sasuke gripped the kunai in his hands tighter as he stared into the dust cloud in front of him. He squashed the tiny twinge of fear that went through him. Naruto was very serious about the Kusa kunoichi being dangerous. Based on Naruto's tone, they were fighting an opponent who was possibly stronger than all three of them combined.

Kunai had immediately snapped into his hands, with wind chakra coursing through them. He stared impassively at the dust cloud, knowing that whatever was behind it, would be possibly threatening their lives in a way much worse than what Zabuza did.

Their first priority was to run away, not fight. Because they had a worse chances of surviving than a snowball in hell. Plans flashed in his mind, each being discarded instantly as he tried to come up with a one that _actually gives them a chance._

He wasn't allowed to think further when his eyes widened in alarm. He executed a scissors kick to push his teammates away, just in time for himself to avoid the mouth of the _huge snake _that tried to _swallow him_.

'_I cannot fight this snake here! I need more space, dammit!' _He cursed mentally. He turned in the opposite direction and purposefully set the pace so that he could bait the snake away from his comrades.

Sasuke cursed as he tensed up even more, moving himself in front of Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun, we have to help Naruto!" She screamed, already tensing up to jump when a slick voice, dripping with malicious amusement even while being female, spoke up behind them.

"No need to worry about your friend. He will be dead very shortly. You worry about me."

Both of them turned around and the tension inside them almost doubled when they saw who it was.

It was the kunoichi from Kusa.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had already formulated a plan on what to do when he spotted a clearing. The shadow clones from earlier had all dispelled themselves, so that chakra had come back to Naruto. He landed in the clearing and turned around.

The snake was huge, easily reaching up to seventy feet in length. As soon as he stopped, the snake lunged with its mouth wide open. He immediately jumped back, easily avoiding the mouth. Forming a shadow clone behind the snake, he instantly switched places with it. So now, the clone was in the field of vision of the snake, giving Naruto full access to its unguarded back.

As the clone jumped around the clearing, Naruto hid on a branch and waited for the perfect moment to strike. As soon as he saw the snake getting into position so it was facing the exact opposite direction of the real Naruto, Naruto acted.

He had practiced this until he could do it with just one hand seal, and he was _so grateful _for it. Clapping his hands together, he did it.

'_Suiton: Suidanha!' _(Water style: Water severing wave) The stream of water that was expelled from his mouth was razor sharp. So sharp that it could cut through thick boulders like a hot knife through butter.

It cleanly split the head of the snake from its body. The clone whistled as he walked across to the real Naruto, the now dead snake laid across the full clearing.

They both gazed at it for a moment, after which the clone said, "That was downright savage of you."

"Thanks."

He dispelled the clone and tried to piece his thoughts together. He knew that snakes this big were not there in the forest, so this was a summon.

'_But there are only two snake summoners. Anko-sensei is not allowed to interfere as the proctor of this exam, so that leaves…..' _His face paled rapidly as he came to a horrifying conclusion about just _who _his team was facing.

He spread out his senses and cursed when he sensed absolute fear from Sasuke and Sakura's numbness. He disappeared in the fastest _shunpo _he had performed until today.

XXXXXXX

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the immensely potent killing intent that was permeating the air. He landed on a high branch and studied the scene below.

The Kusa bitch was staring at Sasuke with a look of amusement, as if she knew she could end him any instant, but was allowing it to play out for her amusement. Naruto's jaw muscles clenched because she was absolutely right. Hell, she could kill himself any instant! Sasuke stood no chance at all against her. _'Who the hell is this intruder?!' _He silently released all his resistance seals.

"Come now, Sasuke-kun, you know you can't win. What will you do?" she chuckled.

Sasuke shivered at the tone but spoke, "It's a scroll you want, right? Take it and leave us!" he threw the fake scroll to the Kusa nin, who probably thought it was just a regular heaven scroll.

He barely refrained from cursing when she just threw it behind her, and the scroll went off in an explosion like the one that killed the team from Ame.

"Ku ku ku. You don't think I didn't know about the little trick your team pulled off?" she mused in a dark tone.

"D-Damn….." Sasuke forced out through gritted teeth. He was gritting them ever since he felt the unnatural killing intent from the kunoichi, to stop from chattering in a show of fear.

He was uncontrollably shaking when he felt her killing intent, and had barely stabbed himself in time to avoid being pierced in the head by her kunai.

The kunoichi _moved_, scaring Sasuke who hurled shuriken at her. "Stay away from me!"

She dodged it with ease, and was almost upon him when a fist came out of nowhere, smashing into her cheek with such force that she was _flown_ backwards. The woman however, simply spun mid-air and landed gracefully. She absently rubbed her cheek as she stared, impressed with his ability to catch her off guard, and the power behind the strike.

She looked into the impassive face of one Uzumaki Naruto, amused by the resolve in his eyes. Sasuke, for once in his life, was infinitely glad to see his comrade. Sakura almost sunk in relief at his appearance.

"My, my, you escaped my friend, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto's face gave nothing away as he answered, "Your friend is dead." The kunoichi looked even more impressed as she looked at him, noting the lack of any scratches or damage on him.

"Very impressive, Naruto-kun. Not many can dispatch my friend without sustaining damage," she complimented.

Naruto glared at her, and she was faintly reminded of another blonde who glared identically. "Why don't you drop that disguise? You're not fooling me."

The woman regarded him for a moment and then laughed, _hard. _"You are amusing! What makes you think I'm wearing a disguise?"

Naruto simply stared impassively, "That giant snake of yours was a dead giveaway. Only two people are known to possess the snake summoning contract. I already know the first, which only leaves one option: Orochimaru of the Sannin. The way you lunged at Sasuke is the snake style of taijutsu, which is another giveaway of your identity."

There was no outward reaction from the woman, but inwardly, she was more impressed. _'What analysis! To be able to observe and deduce things so quickly, and with just one look. That's easily jonin level thinking. The power behind his strike was easily jonin level as well, and it was well timed and placed. He must be incredibly talented and skilled. Shame that he is the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, otherwise that body could be mine,' _he silently complained.

Sasuke was barely keeping from shaking. _'Orochimaru of the Sannin?! The S-rank missing nin from Konoha and former student of the Sandaime?! We stand no chance against him…'_

"Very cleverly deduced, Naruto-kun," the woman said. "Anything else you can tell me?"

Naruto was on an even higher alert, ready to move at the slightest sign of movement from the Sannin. "Well, it's quite clear that you are after Sasuke and by extension, his sharingan. You sent a summon to dispose of me, and didn't even pay attention to Sakura, instead choosing to pick on Sasuke. Am I wrong?"

Orochimaru chuckled, which turned into a full blown laugh. He stopped laughing and…._shed._

The skin of the kunoichi was pulled off to reveal an extremely pale man with long, black hair and golden, slitted eyes surrounded in purple markings, almost like an eye marking. He wore a tan shirt with a long-sleeved black undershirt and a large purple rope around his waist tied in a large knot.

Sasuke and Sakura stared in horror at the most infamous missing nin of Konoha, while Naruto didn't waver from his gaze.

"You are most interesting, Naruto-kun. Unfortunately, it is not you who I came for," he said, looking at Sasuke and licking his mouth with an unnaturally long tongue. Even Naruto was unable to avoid the shudder at the show of creepiness.

He eventually said, "Sorry but, I can't allow you to have your way with him. I need him intact if we want to pass this phase." With that being said, he made the first move.

With lightning speed, he slapped his hand on the ground, a large sealing array erupting from his hand and onto the ground. The clearing was bathed in so much light, that Orochimaru grunted and was forced to shield his eyes, lest he became blind.

When the light died down, the three genin had vanished.

Orochimaru simply chuckled, before following them. _'He's certainly fast.'_

Naruto was flash stepping like crazy, his teammates held in fireman's carry.

Sasuke shouted, "Put me _down, Uzumaki!_"

Naruto didn't miss a beat, "Only if you're as fast as me or faster."

Sasuke shut his mouth and just held on, knowing Naruto was way faster than him. Sakura simply held on for dear life. This was the first time she was moving this fast, or had seen Naruto move this fast.

Naruto was going full throttle, knowing Orochimaru would eventually catch up to them. He was hoping to find some help…..

He sidestepped just in time to avoid being blown away. Orochimaru had caught up to them and was looking highly amused.

Face going impassive, he set Sasuke and Sakura down. "Sasuke, hang back! It's you he wants!"

Sasuke scowled, but heeded the other boy's words and moved back to guard Sakura.

Naruto had leapt forward to meet Orochimaru, fist to fist. They engaged in a furious bout of taijutsu, both of them becoming blurs. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed- this fighting style seemed somewhat familiar, and the boy was doing far too well. Punches and kicks were being blocked quite easily, but finger jabs were coming too close to vital areas. He needed to stop playing around.

Naruto was giving it all, and his frustration was mounting because Orochimaru seemed totally unfazed by his attacks. He was landing hits, but they were barely afflicting any damage. He charged two kunai with wind chakra, increasing his reach. He was forced to duck when snakes erupted from the sannin's sleeves. He flash stepped away, hands lit up by red lightning chakra, causing Orochimaru's eyes to widen.

'_Raiton: Rakurai !' _(Lightning style: Lightning strike) The red lightning was barely avoided by the Sannin, who jumped sideways. Naruto immediately flash stepped to Orochimaru, who was mid-air and stabbed him in the heart with the wind infused kunai.

His eyes widened when Orochimaru just turned brown and crumbled into mud. His senses told him the real one was fighting Sasuke. He immediately turned and looked above, cursing mentally when he saw Sasuke being pushed back and taunted by Orochimaru. The Uchiha was blocking every blow, but it was hurting every time a hit was blocked if his contorted face was anything to go by.

"How weak you are compared to Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun!" He chuckled, watching the boy try to land a hit on his person.

Though he jumped back just in time to avoid another punch in the face. Naruto landed by Sasuke, who was lightly panting. Sasuke began to back up, remembering Naruto's words, but a hand kept him in place. He looked at Naruto's impassive expression.

"I can't take him on alone Sasuke. I need your help. It won't beat or kill him, but it might create a chance for us to run away," he said, carefully watching Sasuke.

Sasuke breathed deeply, calming himself down. This was the first time Naruto had asked him for help, and it was perfectly justified. Orochimaru was not someone who could be taken out by even jonin, much less fresh genin. If fighting together gave them a chance to retreat, he was willing to do it.

"Let's do it."

Naruto smirked for the first time since the fight with orochimaru started and both the boys turned to Orochimaru, who chuckled seeing the looks in their eyes.

"Fighting together? Even that-" He was forced to block Naruto, who had flash stepped in front of him and used the momentum to increase the hit of his kick. Sasuke converged in from above, and both the boys started fighting him.

Sasuke was giving it all he had, and Naruto was more than glad to to have a partner. He and Sasuke were perfectly managing to fight together, their blows not landing on each other. Weaving between each other's attacks without even grazing the other, the two managed to put a surprised Orochimaru on the defense. Naruto was faster than Sasuke, which meant that Orochimaru had to defend himself from two fighters of irregular speed. His body had to react fast and slow, at different times.

Not that difficult for him, but the time it took for him to get used to it, he had already taken too many blows. Jumping back, he formed the snake seal.

"Futon: Daitoppa!" (Wind style: Great breakthrough) A huge blast of air roared towards the two boys, who split up to avoid the blast of air.

Sasuke sped through hand seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" (Fire style: Great Fireball) A huge fireball made its way to Orochimaru, who simply jumped sideways. He was surprised when suddenly, chains of water wrapped around him and smashed him to the ground. He looked up to see Naruto's fist heading towards his face. Instantly switching places with a log, he avoided the glowing fist of dense, blue chakra that would have likely cracked his jaw. He vanished in a burst of speed and dispelled the shadow clone who was maintaining the water chains. He ran around the boys in a blur, trying to disorient them., but mostly to see if they could follow him.

Naruto and Sasuke stood back to back. Naruto was able to follow Orochimaru with his eyes and slower perception, though he doubted his body could move at that speed. Sasuke's two tomoe sharingan was slowly getting used to Orochimaru's speed, when Orochimaru dashed towards Sasuke.

Sasuke acted on instinct, grabbing Naruto's left arm and spinning him once. Naruto let momentum take over, having no time for surprise at Sasuke's choice of attack, and let himself be thrown forward feet first. His shoes met an arm, which he used to jump back to Sasuke. "Che," Naruto said in irritation and jumped up. Orochimaru made to follow him when a cry distracted him

"You focus on me!" Sasuke shouted as he dashed to Orochimaru, engaging the man. The Sannin was greatly surprised that all trace of fear was gone from Sasuke. He easily blocked all strikes coming from the boy, but noticed it at the last moment- a blonde blur with fist outstretched to meet his stomach.

He managed to block it, but was sent skidding to the edge of the branch they were fighting on. He was about to chop the boy unconscious, when a puff of smoke revealed it to be a shadow clone.

Sasuke knew how to take advantage of an opening. So when he saw the puff of smoke from Naruto's shadow clone, he wasted no time. Dashing forward, he kicked Orochimaru. He was unsurprised when the man blocked it in a cross position, but the momentum at which he came created enough force to throw orochimaru off the branch.

The pale man only had a moment to show his shock before he was grabbed from the waist and sped headfirst into the lower branch.

Naruto had jumped up to a higher branch and shot downwards with great speed, catching the missing nin from the waist and smashing him headfirst into a lower branch. He honestly did not know how him and Sasuke were working in a tag team so perfectly, reading each other's intentions so clearly, but was glad for it.

Sasuke landed next to Naruto, and both watched in disbelief as what Naruto had smashed into the ground was revealed to be a mud clone. They both turned to look the other in his eyes, nodding to each other. Neither of them knew how they communicated like this, but both of them knew what had to be done.

Naruto's senses kicked in first, showing Orochimaru heading towards them. He forced himself to react slowly and allowed himself, as well as Sasuke, to be hit. Both flew back from the force of the hit, and pretended to be knocked out as Orochimaru walked closer.

"What teamwork, you two! I've never seen such fine teamwork before in my life, even my own team. Surprising me with every move is not a feat anyone can perform, but you two managed it very impressively," he praised with a crazy glint in his eyes.

Naruto chose to activate the explosive tags he had stuck to the back of Orochimaru's clothing. Orochimaru flew forward and landed face first, caught unawares.

"Now, Sasuke! Trap him!"

"Yeah!"

Both of them took out shuriken and held them between the fingers of both their hands. Giving the Sannin no time to recover, they each split up.

Orochimaru slowly got up, the burns on his back slowly healing. He had barely recovered when he was wrapped up in ninja wire. Glancing towards his right, he saw Sasuke lodging the shuriken wrapped in ninja wire into a tree on his right. On the left, Naruto had done the same. The wrap around him was so tight, Orochimaru mentally winced as his back hit the bark and the wire dug into his skin, drawing blood. _'Where is all this teamwork coming from?! Kabuto said they did not work together at all!' _He enforced his skin with chakra when he saw it.

Naruto and Sasuke landed on the tree in front of him.

"Let's go, Naruto!"

"Yeah!"

Sasuke sped through four hand seals while Naruto formed the snake seal.

"**Katon-"**

"_Futon-"_

"**Ryuka** _Daitoppa_ _**no jutsu!**_" they both shouted together. The large dragon shaped flame that came out of Sasuke's mouth was enhanced by the wind jutsu used by Naruto.

Orochimaru watched with wide eyes as the _utterly humungous dragon made of fire _sped towards him. The flames barreled into him, burning his skin off.

Naruto and Sasuke watched, with the latter panting heavily and the former critically gazing, as the jutsu hit Orochimaru. Hell, the combination jutsu was so strong that it literally _tore apart _the area where it impacted. Orochimaru fell downwards, consumed in flames and the upper half of the tree falling as well.

Sasuke fell to his knees, trying to catch some breath. He had never spent so much chakra at once, ever. Looking up, he saw Naruto intently staring at the place where the jutsu had hit.

"Did we…. get him?" he asked between deep breaths. Right now, he could care less if Naruto was exhausted or not.

"It certainly looks like it," Naruto murmured, trying to see with his senses if they indeed got him. Turning to Sasuke, "It doesn't matter if we got him or not. We have a chance to run-"

That was all he could say when something pink, wet and slimy wrapped around him. He looked down and disgustedly noted that it was a tongue. It pulled him away from Sasuke, who had a similar expression of disgust.

He came face to face with Orochimaru, who had not a single scratch on him-only his clothes were a bit burnt. He had a smirk on his face as he brought up a hand, five purple kanji lighting up on his fingertips. "That's enough out of you, Naruto-kun." It was good for him that Naruto was channeling chakra to try and escape, making his seal visible.

Naruto's eyes went wide as he recognized the kanji. He had extensively studied this particular seal. The Gogyo Fuin (Five elements seal) was a seal that his mother had highlighted in her notes. It was a seal that was mostly used to throw off the chakra control of a jinchuriki. He had extensively researched it in relation to his own seal, the eight-trigrams seal, from the notes that his father made while studying it.

He hadn't mastered the eight-trigrams sealing style completely, but he knew enough to know what would happen if Orochimaru applied it on him. His seal consisted of two Four Symbols Seals, creating the Eight trigrams seal. The Five Elements Seal was an odd numbered seal; if it was applied over his even numbered seal, his contact with Kurama would be cut off. Speaking of whom…

'**Naruto! Move, you idiot! You know what would-' **That was all he could hear from Kurama before Orochimaru hissed.

"_Gogyo Fuin!"_ His arm shot to make contact with Naruto's seal.

PAIN. It exploded onto Naruto, overwhelming his senses and setting his nerve endings on fire. It was such unmatched agony, that his vision blackened moments before he did. He couldn't even scream in pain when he was suddenly unconscious. The last thing he saw before falling asleep was Orochimaru throwing him off.

XXXXXXX

Sakura was in complete awe as she witnessed the tag teaming between Naruto and Sasuke. She had never even imagined that Naruto and Sasuke, who seemed complete opposites of each other, could work so perfectly. It was only the seriousness of their situation that stopped her from cheering her on.

She pumped a fist up in victory when she saw the Sannin getting swallowed by the huge fire jutsu that Naruto and Sasuke cast together. Her feeling of joy turned to downright horror when she saw that Orochimaru had survived, without a scratch.

It was only pure reflex that she managed to pin Naruto to a tree before he fell to his death. She watched, utterly terrified -but she got in front of Sasuke with a kunai held in reverse grip. She wouldn't let anything happen to Sasuke, she thought. Orochimaru suddenly sprung forward-to her disgust and horror- with his neck elongated and extended, fangs barred.

Sasuke pushed her aside, allowing the snake nin to sink his fangs into the boy's neck, causing some sort of seal to appear. His scream though…it was terrible and she was sick of hearing it.

Sasuke fell to his knees, still screaming, and then he abruptly stopped and slumped forward, unconscious but still in pain. Orochimaru chuckled and looked down at Sasuke with satisfaction in his eyes. "Now, show me more of your power, Sasuke-kun. You were good, but can be far greater than Naruto-kun."

He then glanced at the pink haired girl, who flinched at his gaze. He chuckled, "Don't worry Sakura-san, you are not my target. If you quietly hand me your earth scroll, I won't kill you." He watched as the pink haired girl pulled out the earth scroll from her pouch and held it out with trembling hands. He took it from her hands and promptly vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sakura fell to her knees in relief and exhaustion. She shivered at the way he addressed her. It felt completely wrong. She looked at Naruto hanging from the kunai on the tree and Sasuke on the ground, and for the first time in a long time, she felt _completely and utterly hopeless._

**[AN: A skip here, only until Naruto wakes up]**

XXXXXXX

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, groaning in pain as he got. _'That Orochimaru is on tough bastard,' _he grimaced. _'Kurama, you there?'_

The only thing that greeted him was the great demon's silence.

'_Yep, as I suspected. He's been completely cut off. And I can't undo this seal because because the counter requires chakra control of a jonin at the least, not to mention that it will require a foreign chakra other than mine.' _He made a half ram seal and tried to create a shadow clone, but it looked worse than death. Pale skin tone, as sturdy as a blade of grass, not to mention he could barely get up from lying on the ground before getting dispelled.

Naruto tried it again, this time with the cross seal. He nodded in relief when a healthy shadow clone appeared. Dispelling it, he tried to sense chakra signatures, but had much difficulty in molding the chakra in the required way. He sighed and got up, stumbling from the head rush that he got. He steadied himself for a few seconds, then nodded. Other than terrible chakra control, he was physically fine….mostly.

As he stepped out from the underside of the tree, his eyes widened when he saw what was going on.

Sakura was on the ground, looking like she was attacked by all the terror in the world. Team ten was behind the bushes, looking terrified. Their bodies were filled with tension as they gazed at the scene before them. He even saw Tenten and an unknown boy, standing on a branch, trying to decide what to do. Seeing their gazes fixed on an unconscious Lee, he deduced that this was Team nine.

Sasuke was standing, but he looked so much different from the last time Naruto had seen him. He was covered in black marks, almost like waves in a pattern upon his skin. And he was standing behind a member of the Oto team, Zaku, if he remembered correctly, with a leg on his back and pulling on his arms.

Zaku was screaming his throat raw, though Naruto couldn't blame him after seeing the way Sasuke was tearing his arms off. Wasting no time, he acted. Sasuke was out of his mind right now, no doubt being influenced by the evil, tainted chakra that was pouring off of him in waves.

In a single flash step, he appeared in front of Sasuke. He was grateful that the flash step was simple enough that he only needed to push off after building up chakra in his feet. He delivered a chakra enhanced open palm thrust right into Sasuke's stomach, knocking the air out of his shocked teammate.

Sasuke was thrilled at the power that was coursing through him. It addled his mind, but he couldn't care less. It was like an adrenaline shot to his system, which made him feel more powerful than ever before. He needed to test this power out. The feeling of this power….his goal of killing his brother seemed a lot closer suddenly.

He made short work of the Oto team and was about to permanently rip the arms off the last one. He was enjoying this, the effortlessness with which he was dispatching them. He absently wondered if this was how Naruto felt. Being stronger than anyone else standing before yourself.

He was so into the task of ripping arms off that he was caught off guard when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him, thrusting a palm in his stomach. All the breath left him in an instant as his hold on the Oto nin's arms loosened.

Naruto turned towards Zaku, who was close to losing consciousness. He looked at the nin whose face was covered with bandages. "Take him away before my teammate tries that again," he ordered.

The nin gulped as he gazed into the icy blues of the blonde. His stance, his way of speaking, the sheer power and resolve in those eyes….he had no doubt that this guy was somewhere at the top in power rankings of genin. He doubted even Sasuke could match him with the curse mark's power. He also knew that he was no match for him.

"Naruto, is it?" he asked, making Naruto narrow his eyes and nod. He slowly held out their team's earth scroll. "You are, no doubt, too strong for us to take on. So I'll make an exchange- let us leave, and we will give you our earth scroll." He dropped the scroll at Naruto's feet.

Naruto's thoughts raced as he calmly picked up the earth scroll. Had they lost theirs? The Gogyo Fuin had knocked him out for a day, that much he knew. He put the earth scroll in his left hip pouch and mentally sighed in relief when he felt the heaven scroll exactly where he had put it. He kept his posture straight. No need to indicate that he was, at the moment, weak as hell.

He nodded and watched as the nin picked up his teammate and took to the trees. He was about to sit down to take a breather- he had still not fully recovered- when his danger sense exploded. Shikamaru 's voice rang out an instant later.

"NARUTO! WATCH OUT!"

Naruto instinctively responded. His upper body bent down, left leg lifting high behind to catch Sasuke right in his chin. The counterattack knocked Sasuke back.

Naruto watched in complete surprise, "Sasuke?! What the hell are you doing?!"

His heart dropped seeing the smirk on Sasuke's face. Sasuke spoke, "Testing this power, Uzumaki. I've never felt so powerful before! It feels like I can take on anyone, even Itachi! But first, I will see how you fare against this power! I will finally beat you today!" He was sounding more like a power hungry maniac at the end than the emo bastard Naruto was used to dealing with.

He jumped back, yelling out, "Everyone stay back!" Though this was bad for him. He was far from his peak condition, whereas Sasuke was fighting him with a powerup. He would have to knock the guy out. That was his only option right now.

Sasuke rushed at him with speed Naruto clearly remembered Sasuke not having the day before. He blocked the punch to his face, but was forced to remain on the defense as Sasuke did not let up his assault. He grunted as he felt the force behind Sasuke's strikes.

"Sasuke, stop it! We are teammates, not enemies!"

Sasuke only laughed, "Ha! That doesn't matter to me! You will go down today!" He then ducked as Naruto pulled out a kunai and made rapid slashes at him. Sasuke grit his teeth when he was forced to dodge every slash with a hair's breadth.

But he also observed that he was easily reading Naruto's movements. Having gotten used to Orochimaru's speed, Naruto's was quite slower. He took advantage of an opening and caught his hand, giving the blonde's wrist a thrust that launched the kunai a few feet above their heads.

Naruto wasted no time and jumped up, performing a flawless front flip that allowed his right heel to kick the kunai directly at Sasuke's face.

Predictably, Sasuke easily dodged it, allowing the kunai to stick into the ground behind him, following with what was an effortless block to Naruto's left leg that was coming down on him. Naruto used the hand to flip off twenty feet back.

Sasuke scoffed, "Do you think such weak and pitiful maneuvers can defeat me? Get real!" He then sped through hand signs.

"Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!" (Fire style: Dragon flame jutsu)

Naruto watched wide eyed as a huge flame shaped like a dragon headed towards him. He barely completed the hand signs in time when he was swallowed by flames.

Sasuke smirked as he watched Naruto getting hit by his jutsu head on. When the flames dispersed, instead of seeing the expected form of his teammate covered in burns, his eyes widened when all he saw was a kunai lying in the middle of the flames.

He had no time to react when he was grabbed in a tight choke hold from behind. Naruto grunted as he struggled to keep the choke on Sasuke. Sasuke's jutsu was powerful, extraordinarily so, but the drawback was equally big as well.

The huge wall of fire had cut off Sasuke's vision of him, which allowed Naruto to substitute with the kunai lodged behind Sasuke. The Konoha teams got out from their spots and in front of them, looking tensed.

Shikamaru lived up to his reputation as a genius when he correctly deduced the reason behind Sasuke's momentary madness. That evil, tainted chakra that was clearly not Sasuke's must have caused this, he realized. He was ready for the moment when Naruto would call for help. He had also noticed, despite Naruto hiding it very well, that Naruto was banged up as well. He was not in peak condition, and stood very low chance against an enhanced Sasuke. Though he was surprised, yet again, when his blonde friend managed to put Sasuke in a position where he held the advantage. Naruto had tightened his choke, but Sasuke was still putting up a vicious struggle.

He tentatively called out, "Naruto, do you…?"

Naruto just grunted a reply, "Don't worry, Shikamaru," he grunted as he leant his head back to avoid a headbutt and a broken nose, "He just needs to calm do-oof!" He grunted when Sasuke slammed an elbow into his ribs.

Naruto finally let his anger show. "_**Why you!**_" In a show of savageness that surprised all, Naruto, who still had the choke on Sasuke, slammed his captive's head to the tree nest to him, _hard. _Sasuke went down like a sack of potatoes, the black marks receding from his skin.

Hell, Naruto had smashed Sasuke's head into the bark so hard that even the bark had cracked a bit.

Naruto panted hard as he stared at the unconscious form of his teammate. This fight had taken a lot more out of him than he expected. _'The Five Elements Seal is proving to be troublesome,' _he thought tiredly.

Shikamaru watched as his friend almost tipped forward to face plant, and immediately caught him, gently sitting him on the ground.

"Are you alright, Naruto?" He asked in concern. He had never seen Naruto look even winded. But now, all he could see was exhaustion and hurt. There wasn't a single trace of the usual energy that Naruto always kept contained in him.

Naruto chuckled, "No…I'm really not, Shika." He wanted nothing more than to just sleep, but a part of his mind was telling him that they still needed to reach the tower.

Chouji walked up to him, "Can you keep going, though?"

Naruto slowly stood up, and both the boys tensed when the saw him sway a little before righting himself. Putting a hand in his hip pouch, he took out a soldier pill and was about to swallow it when he stopped. He really didn't need any more exhaustion when the effects of the pill ran out. He put it back.

"Yeah, I'm good….."

He almost fell back down when he was hugged by a sobbing Sakura. He took a moment to realize how terrified she was. He just wrapped his arms around her, slowly stroking her hair, which was cut, now that he realized it.

"Thank kami you are alright!" She sniffled into his chest. She was so relieved when Sasuke had come to her rescue, but that relief had turned to terror when she saw how ruthlessly Sasuke dealt with the other team. She almost couldn't take it anymore when Naruto appeared.

She watched in anticipation as Naruto narrowly scraped a victory against Sasuke and managed to knock him out. Naruto looked to be in worse condition, but she sobbed in relief when he managed to win.

He released Sakura, who looked up at him with tearful and fearful eyes. He kept his hands on her shoulders and said in a serious voice, "Sakura, we _need_ to reach the tower. We can no longer delay. Shikamaru!"

The said boy straightened up at the call. "We're moving! We will meet you at the tower!" He nodded, even though a part of him was concerned for his friend.

"What about Lee?" Sakura asked worriedly, looking over to the unconscious boy. Naruto looked at him with thoughtfulness when a voice cut through his musings.

"We'll be taking him. I suppose he got into another fight he couldn't handle?" A boy- Hyuga, upon seeing the eyes- with long brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail and hitai-ate on his forehead said, and with him was Tenten, who looked at him in concern.

"Don't worry Tenten, I'm good for now," he assured her.

The said girl sighed, "I can _totally _see that. I better see you at the tower, blondie." Neji picked up Lee, slinging him over their shoulder and with a nod to Tenten, they were gone.

"That was quite abrupt," Ino mumbled, frowning.

Naruto said, "That's how they do. Well, we better get going as well," he reminded them. With a goodbye to team ten, they departed in different directions.

Naruto made a shadow clone, who picked up Sasuke bridal style and with a signal, they started running. He deliberately kept to the ground because right now, he was body was hurting with every step. He doubted he could tree hop in his current condition. That damn snake had really messed up with his chakra control, he lamented.

"Naruto, what about Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's timid voice broke through his thoughts.

Naruto glanced back at her, and then at Sasuke who was still knocked out. He would have applied a seal on him to keep him knocked out, but applying seals with just your hands and chakra required high chunin level chakra control, which Naruto really didn't have right now.

"He will wake up in a while, Sakura," he vaguely replied. Even he wasn't sure how long would it take for Sasuke to wake up, with how hard he had slammed him against the tree. He was also worried on how Sasuke would react once he woke up. Sasuke was already sour on being weaker than him, but now that he got beaten by a weaker Naruto while himself being powered up more than ever? Naruto really didn't want to think about it.

He and Sakura kept running in silence and by the time it was late evening, the tower finally came into view. He turned to Sakura, fishing out his storage scroll and taking out two water cans.

"One small break, then we rest directly at the tower," he said, taking a sip of water. Sakura nodded at his words, before looking at Sasuke in concern. The said boy was on the ground, the shadow clone carrying him dispelled for the moment.

They finished drinking and Naruto was about to summon another clone when Sasuke stirred. He stopped, and both of them looked to Sasuke in anticipation, who sat up, groaning.

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, thankful for the dark sky. Groaning, he sat up, his body unusually stiff. He turned his head saw his two teammates, looking at him in concern. He tried to remember what happened. He remembered waking up at least. _'What the hell happened? I woke up….Sakura was being attacked by….the Oto team? After that, I was suddenly…powerful?' _his memory drew a blank after that, but he winced as the mark on his shoulder burned a little.

"What happened?" He asked Naruto in a low groan. He did not notice Naruto blink in confusion, nor the slight relaxing of his shoulders.

Naruto couldn't believe it. He wanted to, but it was better to confirm. "You don't remember?"

An annoyed face looked at him, "I wouldn't have asked if I did, idiot."

Sakura opened her mouth to tell that Naruto had knocked him out of his temporary insanity, but a look from Naruto silenced her. She gave him a confused look, silently asking why, but Naruto shook his head.

Naruto turned to Sasuke, "An unlucky circumstance is what happened. The Oto team ambushed us in the branches. A hail of kunai came towards us, forcing us apart. You just happened to land on a branch that had wet moss on it. Your foot slipped, but luckily, since it was a lower branch, you only smacked your head instead of breaking your neck," he smoothly lied.

He was really glad for what actually happened. He wondered if it was just his luck that Sasuke suffered short-term memory loss. It was better if Sasuke's defeat was kept secret. He handed a water can to the boy, who nodded gratefully. While he was drinking, Naruto took Sakura aside and explained.

"Listen Sakura, Sasuke _cannot _know that I knocked him out," he whispered.

Sakura asked in confusion and a little bit of fear, "But why?"

Naruto looked at her in seriousness, "You saw how he acted when he tapped into that power right?" At Sakura's nod he continued, "He's already insecure as it is, about being strong enough or not. The truth might send him over the edge again. You really don't want him attacking us, do you?"

He was glad that Sakura finally saw the truth in his words. He turned back to Sasuke, who had finished drinking the entire water can.

"You ready to move Sasuke? The tower is only two miles out now."

Sasuke chucked the water can into a nearby bush. "Let's move. We'll stop at the tower."

He was about to take the lead when Sakura stopped him, "A-Ano, Sasuke-kun? Naruto still hasn't recovered from Orochimaru's attack. We have to move slowly, so it's better if Naruto took the lead."

Sasuke was surprised at Sakura's suggestion and looked at Naruto. Now that his head was clear, he was surprised how tired and exhausted Naruto looked. "What did Orochimaru do to you?"

"Fucked up my chakra control," was the blunt reply he received. He nodded in understanding, though he was still sour about not taking the lead.

The team started running again, and Sasuke was surprised that they did not take to the branches. Closely looking at Naruto, he narrowed his eyes when he saw Naruto's slightly winced face. It was hurting the blonde to even run.

They finally reached the tower, and Naruto almost fell from exhaustion when Sasuke caught him. "I didn't know a simple chakra suppression seal could do this to _you _of all people," he said with narrowed eyes.

Naruto weakly shrugged. Sasuke then seemed to think for a moment and asked again.

"Can't you use fuinjutsu to fix it?"

Naruto glanced at him tiredly, "The chakra control I require to perform the seal is beyond me right now. I'll need someone else to fix it."

With that, they walked into the tower, with Naruto's arm supported around Sasuke's shoulder and Sasuke's arm supporting his waist. When they entered, they encountered a riddle.

_If you do not possess heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess earth, run through the fields and see strength. If you open both Heaven and Earth, dangerous paths will turn safe. This is the secret of something something. It shall lead you on your way._

Naruto did not even need to think. "It's telling us to open the scrolls."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded. Sakura pulled out her Earth scroll, while Naruto handed the heaven scroll to Sasuke. Both of them slowly opened it, unsure whether it's a trap or not.

Naruto instantly recognized the seals in the scrolls and exclaimed, "It's a summoning seal! Throw it away!"

Both Sasuke and Sakura did as Naruto said, tensing up in preparation of any threat. They were not prepared for Iruka popping out of them, at first with a smile and a wave, then horror took over his features when he saw how badly they were beaten up, especially Naruto.

"Kami, what happened to you three?" He stuttered.

Naruto took the lead, stepping forward. "Iruka-sensei, is it possible for me to meet Hokage-jiji sometime tomorrow? I've got some very grave news."

Iruka shook his head, "The next phase of this exam is in three days Naruto. And in that period, the none of the genin are allowed to interact with their senseis, much less the Hokage."

Naruto sighed and motioned Iruka to come closer. Once he was, he whispered in the man's ear. "I'm pretty sure the news of Orochimaru being in the exams and ambushing us is quite important."

Iruka's eyes, if possible, widened further in horror. "Orochimaru?!" he exclaimed in horror. He then regained his composure and said, "I'll be sure to report this to the Hokage, but you can't meet him right now."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "I've got more to tell."

"Then tell me. I'll relay it to the Hokage."

Naruto waved his finger, "Uh uh, Iruka-sensei. Orochimaru is an S-rank missing nin and so, any information relating to him is S-rank. Only the Hokage can know. If he tells it you, no problem. But I'm only telling the Hokage." He even crossed his arms, showing that he was not changing his opinion.

Iruka grit his teeth. Of all the times for Naruto to be as stubborn as a mule, it had to be now! But he also knew that he would only be wasting his efforts trying to convince him otherwise.

He sighed in resignation, "Alright, I'll tell the Hokage that you've got news about Orochimaru," he hastily continued upon seeing the satisfaction on Naruto's face, "But it's up to him if he wants to visit you in the three day period. Even the Hokage has to follow the rules, you know."

Naruto shrugged, his work completed. There was no way jiji wouldn't come to see him. Orochimaru was his former student and a very infamous missing nin. Of course he would want to know why his student was lurking around Konoha during the chunin exams. Besides, he was also counting on jiji to remove the Gogyo Fuin from him. He wanted to be in top form for the next phase.

"Alright, I'll take you three to your room now." Iruka beckoned them to follow and started walking. Naruto took a step and almost cried out in frustration when he almost faceplanted, _again. _If not for Sasuke catching him in time, his nose would be surely broken. The three followed in the same way they had entered the tower, with Sasuke supporting Naruto. They went up a set of stairs, past a canteen and into a hallway where he opened a room for them. They entered gratefully.

"Naruto, get some rest and come out only when you feel rested, okay?" He received a tired nod in return. He turned to Naruto's teammates, "You two, take care as well." He closed the door after that.

Sasuke helped Naruto to a bed and seated him. Naruto nodded his thanks to him and not bothering to say anything else, he flopped face first on to his bed and was out like a light.

**AN: How was it? Leave your answer in form of reviews. Laters!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 15

**Author's note: Ok, first order of business, I had somewhat anticipated that the readers would like the teamwork between Naruto and Sasuke, but man! The responses were mind blowing! Some may not have liked it, but I needed to show that Naruto is not op as everyone is believing. Stronger than all of his age? Definitely, but matching up to a Sannin? Come on, I'm trying to make it believable. Orochimaru is no joke at all. Naruto might match up to Kakashi with the Hiraishin, but not Orochimaru, not yet. Responses to the date were great as well. On to the story!**

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, thankful for the dimness of the room. He lay off on the bed, staring into nothing and thinking of nothing, and cleared all the sleep from his eyes.

Sitting up, he was happy to find that he no longer felt exhausted and tired like yesterday evening. In fact, he could say with certainty. That aside from having chakra control problems, he was in top physical condition. Looking around the room, he saw his two teammates sprawled out on their beds. Like him, they hadn't bothered to change or freshen up; they had probably fallen out a little after him.

He took the opportunity to hit the shower first and moved to the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, he was clean and fresh in a new pair of clothes and Sasuke and Sakura were just beginning to stir when he walked out of the bathroom.

He grinned at their half sleepy forms. "Hey guys!" he exclaimed a bit too loudly. He grinned a bit more when they just grumbled angrily. No one liked loud noises in the morning.

He chuckled, "Anyways, I'm heading off to breakfast in the canteen. The bathroom's free if you want it." He walked to the door and just when he was about to open it when he turned and smirked, "I don't know if the hot water is limited or not."

Sasuke and Sakura froze for a moment and for a moment, they just sat like that. Sasuke was the first to snap out of it and was about to rush into the bathroom when the door was knocked, causing the two genin to pause momentarily.

If Naruto had not been a sensor, he would have probably slapped an explosive tag on the door and backed away. However, he sensed two familiar chakra signatures outside. _'Kakashi-sensei and jiji. Didn't know they would come this early. Then again, this is Orochimaru we are talking about,'_ he mused as he opened the door.

Hiruzen and Kakashi's serious faces greeted him on the outside. Behind him, Sakura and Sasuke also tensed up for a second before relaxing. Naruto wordlessly stepped aside to let them through and closed the door behind them.

Hiruzen turned to Naruto and said in a tone that unconsciously caused Naruto to straighten his back. "Iruka said that you encountered Orochimaru in the forest."

Naruto nodded just as seriously, "Hai, Hokage-sama." He then recounted everything, beginning from the time when they first encountered him. How he was forcefully separated from his team, how he and Sasuke teamed up to take him down and failed spectacularly. "I don't know what happened after I was knocked out, but I can take a guess," he said, glancing at Sasuke, who tensed up.

Hiruzen and Kakashi both knew very well that when Naruto said that he could guess something, it was something worth witnessing. Naruto never guessed anything, he always observed and when he had gathered his facts, he connected them in such a way that it was hard to argue with him when he had presented his deduction.

Seeing jiji's and Kakashi's anticipating looks, he continued. "I woke up a day after I was knocked out. I was mostly fine, but when I emerged from our hiding spot, I observed that we had been ambushed. An unconscious Lee was in the clearing. When I observed team ten's faces, they positively did not know when Lee had come, which meant Lee had arrived before team ten came to our aid. He was knocked out when I saw him. But," he said, glancing at Sasuke, who was staring at him with a neutral face, "Something was wrong with Sasuke."

He didn't mince his facts. The whole room turned to face Sasuke, who had adopted a scowl. Naruto continued his explanation, "I felt a strange chakra emanating from him. It felt very…evil, for the lack of a word. It also caused him to become extremely ruthless while under its effects. What's more dangerous is that the feeling of that chakra was quite similar to what I felt from Orochimaru."

Both Hiruzen and Kakashi had wide eyes at what had happened. Naruto seemed not to notice their shock as he still continued speaking, "He was covered in strange black marks that were spread over the left side of his body. Judging from his euphoric and ruthless behavior, I'd say he was under the effects that are quite similar to when shinobi receive a major boost in power. However, an accidental slip caused him to get knocked out and while it was only for a fleeting moment, I saw the marks receding to underneath his left collar."

That confirmed Hiruzen's and Kakashi's worst suspicions. Hiruzen turned to Sasuke and asked, but it was more like an order, "Sasuke-kun, can you please remove your shirt for a moment?"

"…Hai, Hokage-sama," came the quiet response from the boy. Sasuke deftly pulled his shirt off and all the occupants in the room were wide eyed, including Naruto, when they saw a strange mark on the left hand side of his neck, its appearance not unlike the three tomoes of sharingan.

"Oh kami," Hiruzen breathed out. This was not good at all. Orochimaru had come into the chunin exams and had put his curse mark on Uchiha Sasuke of all people, who was a major flight-risk. Orochimaru knew that Sasuke carried a deep, revenge fueled desire within him to avenge his clan by killing his brother. He had offered a source of power and gave a glimpse of its effects to Sasuke. Hiruzen became even more worried that Sasuke will go to Orochimaru in hopes of controlling that power.

Naruto curiously asked in disgusted fascination, "What the hell is that?" He had a feeling that this was quite familiar.

Hiruzen turned to Naruto, "That…is the curse mark of Orochimaru. I'm sure you know of this Naruto," he gave a knowing look that confused the others in the room.

Naruto furrowed his brow in thought and it immediately came to him. Anko-sensei had showed him the same thing once on her neck! "Oh damn," he breathed out.

Sasuke was starting to get irritated that the others were talking about him as if he was not even in the room. "What are you talking about?!" He near snarled at the three.

Naruto turned and walked towards Sasuke, pressing two fingers to the seal. While his sensory abilities were still blocked, being in contact with the seal negated the handicap. For a moment he just felt it out, brushing against it with a tiny amount of his chakra. He ignored Sasuke's flinch at the burn of the seal and thought for a moment on how to explain it to someone who did not even know the 'F' of fuinjutsu.

"This seal…..it might sound extremely bad on my part, but it's quite a beauty. It's so complicated, so intricate that it will take years of study to try and find a counter to it. It's like a storage seal that can only be activated by you. If I had to make a guess, judging from when I previously observed you using this seal, it has Orochimaru's chakra in it. Not exactly the same, but just enough to tell that it's similar," he laid out his analysis.

Hiruzen nodded, "Very good analysis, Naruto-kun. That's exactly what it is. However, there is a risk in using it. A grave one."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "What is the risk?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at not just Sasuke's question, but also the way he asked it. He could not say with certainty, but he almost felt like Sasuke was considering using that chakra.

Naruto cut in before jiji could speak, "In the short time that you used it, it probably must have felt euphoric to you. A rush of power so potent and heightened, unparalleled by anything you've felt ever before. Am I wrong?"

He pinned Sasuke with a stare that advised him not to lie. Not that he could anyway, with Kakashi and Hiruzen keeping a close eye on him.

"Yeah," Sasuke answered hesitantly. Hiruzen and Kakashi were in awe of Naruto's deducing skills. If not for both of them knowing who his parents were, they would have thought he belonged to the Nara clan.

Naruto picked up from his answer, almost mumbling more to himself rather than his superiors in the room. "And whatever feels to us that way, we are bound to resort using it again and again. Orochimaru must have kept this in mind when he designed the seal. Anyone who used its power would be tempted to use it repeatedly until they become dependent on its power."

Turning to Sasuke, he said in a pleading tone, "Sasuke, no matter what, you have to _absolutely avoid _using that seal. I was told that it was nothing but a slave collar, a way for Orochimaru to make you kneel to him."

Naruto carefully studied Sasuke's expression. By the end of his explanation, Sasuke looked angry that someone tried to make him dance to their tune. But underneath the anger, Naruto could see it. Sasuke was leaning towards using it when the situation gets worse. Judging by the looks on jiji's and Kakashi's face, they had seen it too.

Hiruzen spoke in a commanding tone, "We have no choice but to seal it immediately. For the good of others and your own."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "How will you seal it? There is only one such seal in existence and that too relies on the will of the recipient."

Kakashi nodded, "I will seal it with the _Fuja Hoin _(Evil containment seal). But, as Naruto said, there's a catch," he said, glancing towards Sasuke.

"What is it?"

Naruto took up from where Kakashi left off, "The evil containment seal is only as powerful as you want it to be. The stronger your will to resist using that chakra, better will be the effects of the seal and better will it be contained."

Kakashi stepped forward, "Come, Sasuke. You can relax after the sealing is over. We must do it now."

Naruto smiled slyly, "I didn't know you were versed in the delicate art of sealing, sensei."

Kakashi turned with a bored eye, "I picked up a thing or two from my sensei." Taking a hold of Sasuke, who had put on his shirt, he vanished in a swirl of leaves. Hiruzen proceeded to leave as Sakura closed the door to the bathroom.

"Jiji!" he called out. This was his chance to get his seal taken off. He lifted his shirt and jacket and molded some chakra to make his seal visible. "Can you remove this seal? Orochimaru placed it on me, and I don't think I want my teammates to know about my status just yet."

Hiruzen studied the seal and saw what it was. "I can do it, but you better brace yourself," he warned before five kanji lit up on his fingers. "On the count of three. One….." he slammed the fingers on to the seal, exclaiming "Gogyo Kain!" He watched with satisfaction as the seal came off Naruto, who was unprepared and as such, fell on his butt. The Five Elements Seal disappeared from on top of his seal.

Naruto glared at the old man, "Where was the two and three, old man?"

Sarutobi shrugged innocently, "Two, three. All the best for the next phase." He _shunshined _away just in time to avoid a barrage of shuriken.

Naruto grumbled in irritation, but brightened up when he felt his consciousness being prodded by a familiar presence. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he was in the valley again, underneath the tree that Kurama enjoyed so much.

The said demon was lazily lying underneath it, his tails swaying behind him lazily, but magnificently. He stared at Naruto intensely, who grinned back. Naruto walked up to Kurama's head and sat down in front of him.

"_Are you alright, Kurama?"_

Kurama scoffed, sending hot air from his nostrils. **"Such a seal can't affect me, but it did affect the seal your father placed on you. We aren't mutually inclusive."**

Naruto nodded in understanding. Kurama spoke again, **"By the way, nice job on trying to fight Orochimaru. You were quite efficient in your attacks, if only to compensate for your weakness."**

Naruto simply waved that comment away. He had gotten used to Kurama's way of complimenting a long time ago. **"Also, the tag team that you formed with the Uchiha was quite impressive, considering who repulsive he acts towards you."**

Naruto turned serious, "Sasuke will do what's necessary to survive to face Itachi someday. Even if it means admitting his weakness right now and teaming up."

Kurama gave a grunt to acknowledge him, but Naruto knew that Kurama could care less about Sasuke, or any Uchiha in general.

"Alright, I'll see you later Kurama." Kurama nodded and settled down for a nap. Naruto then exited his mindscape and opened his eyes in the real world. Only five seconds had passed. Naruto smirked at the time difference opened the door and proceeded to breakfast.

XXXXXXX

The next two days were pretty much uneventful. Naruto did not waste the time given to them. The day the seal was removed, his chakra control came back. He was better than before, hell even his chakra pools had expanded quite a bit.

Nothing interesting had happened in the two days, other than Naruto meeting Temari once again during breakfast. Nothing major had happened, except the two had made eye contact once and looked away quickly, both of them blushing heavily.

It seemed that now that the tension of the second phase had passed, the awkwardness from the end of the first date had returned in full. They didn't meet each other again until the last day, when all the genin had assembled in an arena of sorts.

They were pleased to find that all of the Konoha teams had made it, along with the Oto team as well. He already knew about the Suna team. All of the genin stood in a formation before the Sandaime, who looked serious and imposing, every bit the shinobi he was known to be. He observed all the genin from under his hat, and Naruto could see none of the kindness that he was usually known for by the people of his village.

"Congratulations on successfully completing the first half of the chunin exams. You all have proven you at least have the will to become chunin….but will is not enough by itself, however strong it may be. It's time I revealed to you the real reason why chunin exams are held, one of the many truths you will no doubt learn later in your life," he addressed them.

"In reality, the chunin exams are games of war, a representation of the conflicts between all the nations. It is a chance for hidden villages to showcase the best of their shinobi, who strive to bring glory to their homes. Other nations, all potential clients of our profession will watch the battles."

Naruto tuned the rest of the speech out as he frowned in thought. Basically, what jiji was saying is that the chunin exams are a show of strength from the hidden villages, and they were merely pieces of the whole game. It made perfect sense to him though; the village received more missions and commerce, and in turn put more money in his pockets.

He had no complaints to make as long as he was getting his due.

He returned his attention to the front when Hiruzen cleared his throat. "Now, I will….."

He trailed off when a jonin from the line up of all senseis behind him jumped up and appeared in front of him in a kneeling position of respect. "With all due respect, Hokage-sama, please allow me, the proctor of this exam, to explain."

Naruto observed the ninja carefully. The man was decently tall, bandana with metal plate attached covering the most of his brown hair save for the few in the front. The bags underneath his eyes indicated an exhausted and if the repeated coughs were anything to go by, a chronically sick nature.

The Hokage nodded and moved back to stand in front of the lineup, his eyes sharp and present. The man cleared his throat and began speaking, "My name is Gekko Hayate, and I am the proctor for the third exam. We usually don't do this, but it is being done this time." He said all that before being attacked by another coughing fit.

The genin muttered among themselves as they tried to figure out the reason for the preliminary round. Shikamaru called out in irritation, "What?! Why do we have to go through a troublesome round like this?"

"Like Hokage-sama explained, there will be people coming to watch this. Important people such as the royalty, businessman. We want them to have a good time watching the fights. We didn't anticipate on this many people remaining after the second round. So for the best fights, the best fighters would be chosen. That being said, the rounds will start immediately so if you don't feel your best, you can drop out right now. Your teammates won't be disqualified if you drop out," he explained.

A hand rose up from the crowd, which Naruto identified belonging to one Yakushi Kabuto, the genin they had met back in the exam room.

"I forfeit. I have almost no chakra left." Kabuto said.

Hayate nodded, "Always good to know your limits. You can leave."

Kabuto nodded and walked away. Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion. He could easily sense chakra levels, and Kabuto's was almost full. In fact, he had more chakra than any genin assembled, barring Naruto himself.

Naruto saw Ibiki speaking to the Hokage, who nodded. Nothing more, he turned his gaze back front. Speaking of sensing, Naruto's gaze shifted and landed on one of the jonin from Oto. His chakra was as normal as any of the jonin, but the _very familiar _maliciousness in his chakra gave him away. He was the only jonin who had such a feeling to his chakra.

Not to mention, he failed to disguise his eyes. Naruto heard Kurama snigger as he thought, _'Is Orochimaru an idiot or what? I'm surprised those snake like eyes haven't been caught by jiji yet.'_

He turned his gaze away just before Orochimaru faced his direction. Naruto kept his cool, knowing that he wasn't the target of Orochimaru's stare.

Hayate explained that now that the number of genin was even, they will now have ten one-on-one matches. The victors will proceed to the final stage of the chunin exams. He explained all the regular rules of an authorized shinobi fight and started the matches. All the teams and senseis went up to the balconies. Foreigners on the right and Konoha on the left. They all turned to the screen to see names flashing by, before they stopped on the first two.

**Akadou Yoroi vs Uchiha Sasuke.**

Naruto rose an eyebrow. "Looks like you're first, Sasuke. All the best," he wished the boy luck, but it wasn't said genuinely. Honestly, it was getting harder and harder to trust Sasuke now. Anko had once told him that the cursed mark brought out the worst, the _truest _part of you. Naruto had taken a glimpse at the real Sasuke back in the forest- a maniac who would do anything for power, even kill his own. He had no love for his own people.

Naruto watched as Sasuke went down. Sasuke was his comrade and as such, he would protect his comrades with his life, as was his duty. But to Naruto, that's all what Sasuke was to him right now. A comrade, nothing more. There was no friendship, no trust between them as of now. Sasuke officially lost them when he chose to use the tainted power and attack him with the intent to at least fatally injure him.

Naruto would be wary of Sasuke now.

Back in the arena, Hayate raised his hand before shouting. "Hajime!"

Yoroi placed his hands in a seal, "Let's do this!"

Naruto closely payed attention to the match. After Yoroi had placed his hands in a seal, his left hand had begun to emit a blue aura of chakra as he took off in a sprint towards Sasuke.

Sasuke, for his part, simply stood still with his sharingan active. _'I thought he wouldn't be able to use the sharingan without being affected by the cursed seal. But no matter, I will win anyway,' _Yoroi panicked at first, then relaxed, continuing his assault. As soon as Yoroi threw his hand forward, Sasuke blocked it. However, he was shocked when he could feel his chakra leaving him.

"I have the ability to absorb another person's chakra through my jutsu. You don't have a chance," Yoroi said smugly. Sasuke grit his teeth and immediately lashed out, forcing Yoroi to disentangle from him.

Sasuke stood at a distance, breathing heavily. He had deactivated his sharingan. _'Dammit! I was too careless! I can't afford to lose any more chakra! I have to finish this fast, or I risk exhaustion from his jutsu!' _he thought furiously.

Yoroi gazed at Sasuke, feeling smug about his apparently easy victory. However, that feeling soon disappeared when Sasuke seemed to disappear as well, right in front of his eyes. However, the jonin and Naruto saw that Sasuke had just moved incredibly fast, crouching in front of Yoroi and delivering a kick to the boy's jaw.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. _'That cannot be his speed. He was that fast only with the power of the curse mark. But that kick….Sasuke copied Lee, didn't he? Not bad at all.' _

Yoroi was sent flying with the force of the kick. When Sasuke appeared below him, Yoroi instantly recognized the maneuver as the shadow dance. He had no time to be shocked at all.

"**Shishi Rendan!" **Sasuke executed a devastating three hit combo, with the last hit involving smashing Yoroi into the ground with such force that the boy was knocked out instantly. Sasuke stood back, breathing heavily and a scowl on his face. _'I can't believe I was pushed so far by this guy. I should have been able to defeat him no time at all!'_

Hayate checked if Yoroi was knocked out. When he was, he stood up and announced Sasuke's victory.

Ino and Sakura cheered loudly at the victory, and even Kakashi cracked a smile. But Naruto was standing with a neutral expression, just looking at Sasuke and replaying the fight in his head.

'_He copied Lee's techniques back when they were fighting. That sharingan…..quite a useful way to learn techniques,' _he speculated. Then he looked at Lee, who looked a bit downcast. _'I guess that's how everyone feels when they have all their hard work copied by the sharingan in just a blink. I'll have to be careful from now on; Sasuke might just be looking for opportunities to use the sharingan on me,' _he thought.

The rest of the fights that followed were quite interesting. The next fight was Shino vs Zaku. According to Naruto, Shino won in a true Shinobi fashion. Zaku could only use one arm, but he almost got Shino with his attack Zankuuha. But despite being hurt, Shino was able to trap Zaku with his Kikaichu in a checkmate. The bugs had actually stuck inside the holes of Zaku's arms, rendering them completely useless and making it a victory for the Aburame.

The next match was Kankuro vs Tsurugi, the genin from Kabuto's team. The match was very short. Tsurugi could contort his body, his arms and limbs getting longer and trapping Kankuro in his grasp. At first, it seemed that Kankuro's neck was snapped, but it just turned out to be the puppet, while the real Kankuro was the one in the bandages. He turned the tables on Tsurugi and trapped his in the grasp of his puppet, breaking several of his bones. Tsurugi lost the match and Kankuro was declared victorious.

The next match was Sakura vs Ino. Honestly speaking, the fight was quite pathetic. It was nothing more than two fangirls fighting, though this time, Sakura was more focused on her fight rather than just impressing Sasuke. She managed to land many hits on Ino before Ino allowed her anger to take over. In an impulsive action, she cut her own hair, trying to show her resolve. Naruto just shook his head, feeling secondhand embarrassment on behalf of them. _'This is what ninjas of Konoha are supposed to be? The previous Hokages must be rolling in their graves.'_

Both of them just knocked each other out. Kakashi went down to pick Sakura up, while Asuma picked Ino up.

Naruto was honestly torn in his feelings about the next match. He didn't know whether to ogle Temari and admire her, or to feel bad about his fellow Konoha genin, Tenten. The matchup for Tenten couldn't have been worse.

All the weapons that Tenten threw at Temari were effortlessly blown away by the other girl. Naruto shook his head; Tenten overly relied on her weapons and that was a glaring weakness. Without her weapons, Naruto doubted she knew any elemental jutsu. Tenten's final move, which was throwing all her weapons at Temari, was as useless as Naruto predicted. All her weapons were thrown back at her. Tenten flew up in the air, and was about to land on the ground when another swipe of Temari's fan sent the girl rolling on the ground, unconscious surrounded by her weapons.

Lee seemed to take Tenten's defeat quite personally, and felt that Temari was a bit too harsh. He moved to attack Temari, who just blocked the attack with her fan.

"The world of the shinobi is harsh, Lee. What Temari-san did was actually quite mild," Gai-sensei said in a solemn tone as he guided Lee back upstairs. Temari scoffed at Lee and turned to go back upstairs, when she stole a glance at Naruto. He was looking at her with a warm smile, silently mouthing his congratulations with a wink. She blushed and looked away from him, walking back to her brothers.

The next match was Shikamaru vs Kin, a genin of the sound team. Naruto actually enjoyed watching his friend's match. Shikamaru 's intellect never failed to surprise him.

She used needles tied with bells towards Shikamaru, who figured she would throw one with the bell and one without the bell to confuse him. She threw more bells, all dodged by Shikamaru. But he was shocked to hear a bell behind him. Turned out she used a type of genjutsu based on sound, disorienting him. After a little struggle on his part, Shikamaru managed to trap her in her shadow imitation technique. He threw a shuriken at her, causing her to do the same and dodged, but the wall was in her way and she was easily knocked out.

All in all, it was a great match. _'Shika can go far if he focuses a bit more on the versatility of his techniques instead of just relying on the clan techniques,' _he thought with a smirk. He nodded to the guy, congratulating him on the match, but the boy just muttered troublesome and walked away.

It was finally his turn. And his match was against Kiba.

Naruto just sighed at the matchup, whereas Sakura and Kakashi seemed to wince. Even Sasuke felt his eye twitching. Kiba was in for a rough time.

"Ha! We got lucky, Akamaru!" Kiba gloated, jumping down into the arena. Akamaru gave an enthusiastic bark of agreement. Naruto also jumped down into the arena. Now was the time to show a little of what he was capable of. Kiba didn't know of his true strength like his own team and team ten, so he was likely to be underestimated.

On the other hand, Kiba was likely to stick to clan techniques. This was a great opportunity to learn Kiba's ways of fighting. He wouldn't be revealing anything significant of his own.

Naruto stood across from Kiba as Hayate stood between them. Kiba smacked his right fist into his other palm. "Heh, I feel bad for you Naruto! I'll end this in just one punch!"

Naruto showed no reaction at that. In fact, the Konoha jonin except Kakashi were quite unnerved at the lack of reaction from the resident prankster of Konoha. His face was devoid of expression, eyes giving nothing away. It reminded them too much of a certain missing Uchiha.

"Hajime!"

Naruto did not bother falling into a stance. First, he would let Kiba do all the work, showing him all his techniques. He was not disappointed when Kiba underestimated him and dashed forward in low-chunin speed, after getting on all fours, an elbow on the way to get buried in his gut.

Kiba grinned savagely when he neared Naruto. _'He doesn't stand a chance against me!' _However, that thought was thrown out of the window when Naruto side stepped at the last second. Kiba was going too fast to stop, so he just went past him. Naruto grabbed Kiba's jacket from behind and threw him back towards Akamaru. Kiba grunted as he landed on his back, managing to flip up after the landing.

Naruto just stood there, arms at his sides. He called out, "Don't give less than your best, Kiba! Or you won't even stand a chance of winning!"

Up in the stands, Kurenai frowned and turned towards Kakashi, "Kakashi, your genin is being quite cocky, despite being the dead last of his batch."

Kakashi nodded, "He has every right to be."

Kurenai scoffed and turned back to the fight, "Kiba will thrash him, Kakashi. Naruto is no match for his speed."

She missed the entirety of team 7 wincing. _'If only you knew,' _they collectively thought. She was about to be proven wrong.

Down in the arena, Kiba was scoffing. "I don't need my best attacks to beat you, Naruto!"

However, Naruto was no longer in front of him. His eyes, along with all the jonin present widened. He turned around in almost a whiplash and panic gripped him when he saw Naruto holding Akamaru by his front legs, the puppy whimpering in fear.

Naruto's voice was as cold as his eyes, "Is this enough of an incentive?"

Kiba grit his teeth. _'I didn't even see him move! How is he this fast?! And he's got Akamaru!' _

Kiba didn't waste any more time. "Akamaru!" He tossed a pill into the open mouth of the dog. Naruto immediately dropped the puppy and retreated to a safe distance._ 'Now I might get a warm-up, at least.'_

He was wrong.

Immediately after Akamaru had swallowed the pill, he grew larger until he was a regular sized dog, with red fur. Akamaru dashed in a speed he did not possess earlier to Kiba's side. Kiba and Akamaru then dashed together towards Naruto, with Kiba throwing smoke bombs around Naruto. He expected Naruto to get disoriented and confused, allowing him to hit the boy easily.

However, Naruto surprised everyone again when he flash stepped out of the smoke field in an instant and looked at the smoke screen intently. All the jonin suddenly realized what Naruto was doing. He was scouting, analyzing Kiba's techniques and strategies to develop a counter strategy!

So far, Naruto had gathered quite some info on his opponent. _'The Inuzuka clan employs ninken to aid in their battle. From what I have seen until now, Kiba's style if purely offensive, relying on speed and ferocity and augmented by Akamaru. His fighting style utilizes his claws. Kiba is hot-headed, plunging headfirst into this situation without any strategies, believing he can overpower me with brute force and speed. However, he employs distraction tactics when brute force does not work. The smoke bombs were to confuse me and taking advantage of that, it would allow Kiba would land his attacks.' _

The whole train of thought took less than a second. Naruto knew Kiba had much more to reveal. "Oi, Kiba! There is no one in there, you smelly dog!" of course, Naruto meant no offense. It was purely to provoke Kiba into attacking him with his strongest attack, revealing his trump card to all.

As expected, Kiba took the bait and rushed out of the smoke screen with Akamaru, both snarling furiously. "You'll pay for that, Naruto!" Finally, he revealed it.

He crouched on all fours again, with Akamaru climbing on his back. "Gijou Ninpo!" (Ninja art of beast mimicry) A puff of smoke revealed that Akamaru had transformed into Kiba, with both the Kiba crouched on the ground.

Kurenai smirked on the railing. "Seems that your student is done for Kakashi. He may be fast, but not fast enough to avoid both of them at the same time."

Kakashi just eye smiled at her, "We'll see, won't we?"

In the arena, both the Kiba's took off towards Naruto, their speed greatly increased. However, Naruto surprised everyone present when he nimbly dodged all of their efforts to land on him. What confused the team 7, however, that they didn't know Naruto incorporated his fighting style to be so flexible. They didn't know that Naruto had indeed, incorporated the Snake-style Taijutsu in his own style of fighting.

This continued for about ten seconds after which Naruto decided that Kiba was still hiding his ultimate technique. He absently dodged a Kiba by leaping into the air, thinking on how to make him reveal it.

Kiba grinned when he saw Naruto leap into the air to dodge Akamaru. It was pissing him off on how easily he was dodging them. He never knew Naruto was capable of being this fast. But now he had their chance.

"Gatsugaaaaaaa!"

The cry snapped Naruto out of his thoughts, noticing too late the twin swirling tornados heading towards him in mid-air. He cursed for letting his concentration slip and immediately threw a kunai behind the duo before he got hit with them.

Kurenai smiled in satisfaction as she saw Kiba using his strongest attack to smash Naruto into the ceiling of the arena. "Your student lost, Kakashi. Might as well go and collect him, because that was Kiba's strongest attack. Naruto won't be getting up anytime soon."

Kakashi smirked beneath the mask, "Well, it's not over yet, Kurenai." Kurenai narrowed her eyes and looked down, eyes widening along with Asuma and Gai when they figured out what happened.

Kiba stood triumphantly over the downed form of Naruto. "Heh! You might be tough, but not tough enough! Gatsuga is a crippling attack, and you just- huh?!"

The Naruto on the floor puffed into smoke, revealing just a kunai. Kiba spun around just in time to receive a blow to his stomach that sent him barreling into Akamaru.

Naruto carefully kept his eyes on the real Kiba as they rolled. The next part of his plan required it. He taunted Kiba, "I am getting bored Kiba. I am finishing this now, if you don't mind." Without a seal, a shadow clone popped up beside him.

"I'll give you only thirty seconds. Try to knock me out, will you?" With that, both of them separated, the clone going after Akamaru and Naruto facing Kiba.

In the next thirty seconds, Naruto dodged three Gatsuga, all the while looking relaxed. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity, which arrived finally when Akamaru had to take a breath.

Kiba barreled towards him with another Gatsuga, finally hitting him. The attack sent Naruto barreling into the wall on the other side, causing it to crack a little.

Kiba was lightly panting as he stared at the down form of Naruto. "That'll teach you not to get me angry…" However, panic gripped him for a second time in the whole fight when another puff of smoke revealed just who he had hit.

Akamaru lying on the ground, unconscious and heavily injured, if the blood was anything to go by. He turned around with wide eyes to see Naruto and his shadow clone smirking, both sharing a fist bump after which the clone dispelled.

The jonin above were dumbstruck. None had expected Naruto to substitute with Akamaru at the last second. Naruto had used a simple, but a very clever tactic to take Akamaru out of the fight. Now that Kiba was alone, the Konoha jonin were rethinking the fact whether Kiba would be able to beat Naruto or not.

Naruto said while smirking, "Now that your partner's out of the fight, it's your turn, Kiba."

Kiba's eyes were wide with disbelief at how Naruto had completely turned the tables on him. Naruto, except for the punch that sent him into Akamaru, had not attacked once. Instead, he just let the fight progress, letting Kiba do the work for him and taking Akamaru out instead of himself.

Naruto created four shadow clones that popped into existence with a half ram seal. They all surrounded Kiba, who cursed at his situation. What happened next would be remembered by everyone.

The Naruto in front of Kiba punched him fast and hard sending him into the Naruto behind him, who roundhouse-kicked him into the Naruto on his left. That Naruto spun-anticlockwise and his left leg caught Kiba in the chest, sending him backwards into the fourth Naruto who kicked Kiba so hard in the chin that Kiba swore he felt his teeth crack as he was sent flying across the arena in an arc.

Naruto then jumped across the arena himself, having timed the jump such that he was above Kiba in mid-air. **"HAH!" **The cry was to denote the victory in his voice rather than the application of force. Spinning to gather momentum, he sent a punishing kick to Kiba's gut that sent him crashing into the ground, creating a mini crater.

He landed in a crouch a few meters away, facing away from Kiba. He already knew that Kiba had passed out from the pain. He looked over to Hayate, who was confirming Kiba's condition. Finding him to be unconscious, Hayate rose and declared, "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto."

The entire crowd, including Naruto's team, was speechless. The teams outside of Konoha were gaping at the blonde, who was not even out of breath. What kind of training did Konoha give to this guy?! The team from Suna had varied reactions. Kankuro was slightly sweating, not because of the punishment Kiba went through, but at how effortlessly Naruto delivered it. Temari had a hand over her mouth to prevent anyone from seeing that she was gaping in amazement. She had figured Naruto was strong, but not this strong.

He had finished the fight with just a shadow clone and taijutsu, not to mention he didn't use any weapons, except for the kunai which he just used for replacement. He had not given away any of his trump cards, and could dish it out hard without resorting to any of them. He wasn't even out of breath! But the reaction from Gaara was the one that worried them the most.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he whispered, a crazed expression coming on to his face. "You'll prove my existence."

Naruto walked up the stairs confidently, but stopped when Kurenai stepped in front of him, an incensed look on her face. "Was it really necessary for you to be so brutal?"

Naruto folded his arms and replied, "I fail to see why you're so incensed."

Kurenai put her hands on her hips and glared hard, "I believe, from your performance, that you were skilled enough to simply knock him out. Why didn't you?"

Naruto checked in his peripheral vision that all the Konoha nin on the railing were watching in interest. Turning his attention back to Kurenai, he said, "You won't understand. Besides, there are people my age who are way stronger than me. If this were a real battle, Kiba would have been dead a hundred times over in one minute." He wanted to say more, but held it in. He just walked away, letting Kurenai take in his words.

The Konoha nin had to admit that it was true. From the looks of it, Naruto had gone extremely easy on Kiba, not even putting much effort. If he had put effort…..they didn't want to think about it.

**[AN: Sorry for the skip guys, but I won't be writing any more of the fights. My main focus is on Naruto, so read it like the rest of the fights went exactly like that of in canon.]**

After the fights were finished, Hayate called out, "Will all the winners please come down to the arena floor? We have a few announcements."

Sasuke, Shino, Temari, Kankuro, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji and Gaara arrived at the arena floor as Hayate addressed them again.

"Congratulation to you all. You eight genin are the finalists that will compete in the finals of the chunin exams in one month's time. It will be just how it happened today except your opponent will be decided right now." He pulled out a small pouch filled with chits.

"You will pull a number from the pouch and announce the number you have received along with your name. By those numbers you will be paired."

He started with Naruto first and then went down the line.

"Uzumaki Naruto-1"

"Aburame Shino-6"

"Gaara-3"

"Kankuro-5"

"Hyuga Neji-2"

"Sabaku no Temari-7"

"Uchiha Sasuke-4"

"Nara Shikamaru -8"

Hayate nodded and read from the clipboard he was carrying. "The final matches will be the following:

Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuga Neji

Gaara vs Uchiha Sasuke

Kankuro vs Aburame Shino

Sabaku no Temari vs Nara Shikamaru"

He looked up from the board and addressed the genin. "There will be seven matches in total. The fifth match will be between the winner of the first and the second, the sixth match will be between winner of the third and the fourth, seventh between the winner of the fifth and the sixth."

Sandaime stepped forward at this point, "Now that you know who your opponents are going to be, use the following month to prepare for the finals. Your village will be represented, so while preparing, keep that in mind."

XXXXXXX

The next day, Naruto was walking at a comfortable pace to training ground 7, where he had sensed Kakashi. As he walked, he thought about what happened yesterday.

Hinata had been pit against Neji, and it wasn't just cousin rivalry that was going on. Naruto had learned for the first time, listening to Neji talk, that the Hyuga were divided even among themselves. Hinata was the heiress of Hyuga, which meant that she was a member of the main house. Neji was a member of the branch house, and held a serious grudge against the main house, if his behavior towards Hinata was anything to go by.

Naruto hadn't taken well to Neji verbally assaulting the already timid girl so much. Neji had to be stopped from landing a fatal blow to Hinata by the jonin senseis. Naruto himself had sworn a blood oath to make Neji pay for what he did to Hinata. Maybe it _was _fate that they ended up being opponents. Who knows?

Naruto didn't know the full story yet, but he won't be looking into it just yet. Right now, he needed to find Kakashi for his training. He leisurely walked into the training grounds and spotted Kakashi and Sasuke, both standing by the stumps. Kakashi, as usual, had his head buried in his porn while Sasuke just looked plain annoyed. He then spotted Naruto walking towards them in no hurry at all.

"What are you doing here?" the annoyance was crystal clear in his voice. Naruto easily shrugged it off and replied.

"I'm sure our sensei was expecting me. After all, we both need training for the chunin finals," he easily smiled back, further annoying the Uchiha.

"I was, indeed, expecting you, Naruto," Kakashi said, snapping his book shut. He regretted for what he was about to do, but it couldn't be helped.

Naruto stared intently at Kakashi, straight in his visible eye. There was something going on that he did not know. Casting a bored glance at Sasuke, he couldn't find anything. Th boy just looked annoyed and…impatient? Impatient for what?

Kakashi found it hard to stare his student in his eyes. Those eyes that were full of intelligence, but always looked bored. But now that Naruto was staring at him, trying to figure out what was going on, he didn't see Naruto. Instead he saw his sensei, who only looked disappointed at him, as if already knowing what he was about to do.

Naruto stared at Kakashi, waiting for him to speak. But for some reason, the usually cool jonin looked a tad bit uncomfortable. Naruto mentally sighed, thinking that Kakashi would need some prompting to speak. Bluntly pointing a finger towards Sasuke, he asked, "Why is he impatient?"

The question caused Sasuke's neck to snap towards him. It also caused Kakashi to finally regain his wits. Before he could speak, Naruto beat him to it. "Anyways, I came to ask you to train us for the finals, Kakashi-sensei." He was careful to say "us" and not "me".

"You see Naruto, the thing is, I won't be training you for the finals," he said, guilt bubbling up on the inside. The level of guilt grew exponentially when he learned what his student had come to ask for. But because of who Sasuke's opponent was, he needed to train him.

Naruto for his part, simply stared at Kakashi like he was stupid. Inside though, he was a bit hurt. He knew Kakashi was the only man with a sharingan still affiliated to the village and therefore, was the best person to train the last loyal Uchiha. But that excuse became invalid the moment he chose to become a sensei. As a sensei, he had to treat all his students fairly, without playing favorites. He could understand that Sasuke needed training because of who his opponent was, but that was no excuse to ditch his other students. What about him and Sakura?

Naruto's posture straightened up, and he folded his arms across his chest. "Other that the fact that Sasuke is facing Gaara and only you can train him with his sharingan, what excuse do you have this time for ditching me and Sakura?" He didn't mince his words. He had laid his cards onto the table, opting to see Kakashi's hand.

Kakashi flinched heavily this time. The accusation was clear Naruto's voice, and his question had hit a bullseye. What excuse _did_ he have? HE could not form an answer.

Naruto watched Kakashi struggle for words and fought to keep his eyes from narrowing. He felt anger for the first time since wave mission, and it was smoldering. He knew that he himself had received special training before, but it was justified considering his position as the lone jinchuriki of the village. Why was Sasuke entitled to special training?!

Naruto simply put his arms in his pockets and turned around. He really wasn't in the mood to hear another half-assed excuse that Kakashi would likely give to him.

"Don't bother answering. I can see you have no excuse," Naruto said, walking away. Kakashi decided to change the topic to at least salvage what little he could.

"But I did find you another sensei, Naruto."

Naruto stopped, but did not turn around. "If you mean the closet pervert hiding in the woods behind us, thanks but I'll pass." He was in _no way _training with Ebisu of all people for something as important as the chunin exams. He had met the man when he was training Konohamaru how to use the _Oiroke no jutsu. _Needless to say, he was not impressed at all. The man's chakra was barely mid-jonin, and his attitude towards him pissed him off.

Before using _shunshin _to go away, he said without turning around. "I don't know if you know or not, but Gaara's like me, maybe even stronger," he revealed, causing Kakashi to widen his eye in shock. Naruto continued, "Even people like you would be hard pressed to beat him." He flickered away, not waiting to watch the man's reaction or Sasuke's confusion.

He appeared in front of the Hokage tower, deep in his thoughts. He was sure everyone would remember what Gaara had done to Rock Lee yesterday. The guy, with his sand, had crushed Lee's hands and legs so brutally, without any hint of remorse or emotion, that even Naruto had sweat a little. Gaara was dangerous, and he himself didn't know how he would beat the guy.

Kurama had told him that since the Ichibi was the weakest of all tailed beasts, he gave his host full access to his power very early, which is why Gaara was so deranged. Shukaku had been influencing Gaara ever since Gaara could talk, so it was bound to affect him some way.

Naruto did not care to go through all the doors. He simply jumped up to the window, slid it open and announced "Yo jiji!"

XXXXXXX

Sarutobi was glaring at the paperwork before him with all the hate he could muster. He was about to start on it when he felt an exceptionally large amount if dense chakra heading towards him. He was about to stand up when he heard the familiar voice "Yo jiji!"

Sarutobi blinked at the blonde perched on his window, waving casually at him. However, he detected a small amount of sadness emanating from the boy.

"Naruto-kun, come in." He let the boy come inside and sit in front of him. He patiently waited for Naruto to speak.

Naruto deliberated how to say it, but decided that laying it out seemed the best option. "I need someone to train me for the finals," he had expected the confusion on jiji's face.

"Why, what happened to your sensei?"

Naruto managed to keep the bitterness out of his voice, "He is training Sasuke for the finals."

Sarutobi had been a shinobi for almost seventy years, and therefore was adept at reading the emotions of people, especially the hidden ones. So it immediately became clear to him what had happened and his eyes hardened.

'_Kakashi promised me he would treat his students without favoritism! How dare he break that promise?! I knew he would be conflicted between Obito's and Minato's legacy. He should have at least found some middle ground instead of just tossing aside Minato's legacy!'_

He raged mentally for a few more moments before calming down. Fortunately, he did have someone excellent who could train Naruto for the finals.

"Very well, Naruto. I will speak to Kakashi later, but for now, I do have someone who could train you."

Naruto's eyes lit up with hope, "You do?"

Sarutobi smiled and nodded, "Why, yes. _He _is in the village right now."

Naruto looked confused for a second, but immediately grasped the meaning of that statement. A smirk spread across his lips, "Is he now?"

Without waiting for him to respond, Naruto was gone in a swirl of leaves. Sarutobi chuckled, returning to his paperwork. He looked forward to seeing what Naruto did in the finals.

Naruto immediately spread his senses, sensing every chakra signature he could. A particularly large chakra signature showed up on the outermost point of his range. Naruto smirked and ducked into an alley. After checking that no one was watching, he flashed to the location. He had put his formula around the hot springs as well.

Appearing silently in a blue flash beneath the large man perched on the branch of a tree, shamelessly peeping into the women's side of the hot springs and giggling, Naruto reacted the instant he appeared, jumping up and kicking the man into the women's side of the bath.

He then sat down to enjoy the show. There were definitely screams of women and the pained screams of Jiraiya filled the air. Naruto laughed heartily at the beating his godfather was going through. He had settled things with him a while ago, and had no problem making fun of the guy.

He didn't stop laughing even when Jiraiya managed to leap over the fence and out of the war zone looking no worse for wear. He glared at the blonde brat on the branch, who was wheezing so hard that he fell down the branch, not even registering the fall. Jiraiya growled and was about to kick the brat when Naruto finally stopped wheezing and stood up. His face was flushed with all the laughing.

"That's what you get for peeping, _Ero-sennin,_" Naruto smirked, folding his arms. Jiraiya crossed his arms in a huff.

"You know better than to interrupt my peeping time, Naruto," he muttered, though there was no heat in his voice. He then really looked at Naruto for the first time. He had grown well, standing over at five feet two and a well-built physique for his age. His hair was tied in his usual ponytail, and he still looked as bored and indifferent as over.

"Anyways, what do you want?"

Naruto's expression turned serious and asked, with a hint of pleading in his voice, "Will you please train me for the chunin finals?"

Jiraiya smirked, having already known what Naruto was going to ask. He had no problem training his godson for the finals, but he wanted to test his resolve first.

"What are you offering me in return of the training?"

Naruto gave a deadpan stare, "What happened to being a respectable shinobi? The people would be mighty disappointed to learn that the Mountain Toad sage is a stingy old man."

Jiraiya shook his head, not at all offended. "I'm not talking about money." A lecherous grin spread across his face, "I'm talking about your _Oiroke no jutsu._ It sounds very interesting from what sensei told me."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in interest, "You really are just a pervert aren't you?"

"Wrong!" Jiraiya shouted, waving a finger. "I not just a pervert- I'm a SUPER pervert!"

Naruto let a smirk across his face, "Let's see you hold up against this!" With a ram seal, Naruto was replaced with a naked, buxom young woman with smoke covering her most sensitive areas and her pigtails waving gently in the breeze.

"Is this what you were referring to, _Jiraiya-sama?_" Naruko asked cutely with a finger on her lower lip.

For a moment, he thought Jiraiya would fall over in a nosebleed- his eyes were bugged out to the max, and the man almost looked like he'd have a heart attack on the spot. But suddenly, he surprised Naruto with a two-way thumbs up, hearts replacing his eyes.

"THAT'S VERY GOOD!" He almost crowed in praise. "Alright kid, I'll train you!"

"Great!" Naruto cheered and almost released the jutsu when Jiraiya stopped him.

"One condition though!" Jiraiya stopped him.

"What?"

"You have to keep that henge on the entire time we're training."

Naruto dispelled the jutsu, looking plain annoyed. "You are way over the top sometimes, ero-sennin."

"Don't call me that, brat!" He barked, bonking Naruto on the head. "Fine, I'll train you. Meet me here tomorrow, morning seven o' clock. Don't be late."

Giving a two fingered salute, he was gone. Naruto chuckled; it was good to see his godfather after such a long time, and he was as perverted as ever. He was gone in a blue flash a moment later.

XXXXXXX

The next morning he met Jiraiya at the bathhouse again. "Good morning, ero-sennin!"

Jiraiya grumbled, "You're really stuck on that name, huh?"

Naruto said mildly, "You have to admit though, it's oddly befitting of you."

As they walked, Jiraiya explained, "Alright, first I need to have a measure of your current skills, so we'll go an empty ground I know a few ways away. Then after that, I'll help you set up for the things you need to work on, while I do my own work."

Naruto interrupted with a dry tone, "You mean peeping, don't you?"

Jiraiya didn't even acknowledge the question, leading them into a field with a large lake on the other side of the bushes. Jiraiya stopped in the middle of the field and turned to face Naruto.

"Show me what you got."

Naruto asked in return, "Should I take off the resistance seals?"

Jiraiya considered it and said, "Start of with them, then when I say so, take them off."

Naruto grinned savagely. He could strike without holding back this time. The thought spiked his heart rate, adrenaline filling his veins. He shot forward in a dash, his right foot towards Jiraiya's face. It was blocked by the man, but Naruto only needed to get close. He engaged Jiraiya in an exchange of punches, kicks, palm strikes and jabs, never hitting the Sannin, but not getting hit either. He realized that Jiraiya was just getting serious, so he decided to up the game.

Disengaging, he formed the snake seal. _'Futon: Kaze gyorai no jutsu!' _(Wind style: Wind torpedo) A spinning ball of wind sped towards Jiraiya, who looked shocked. _'He knows Futon?!'_

He jumped out of the way, seeing the spot he was standing on explode in wind. _'I would have been cut in pieces if I had gotten hit with that.' _He sped through his own hand seals. "Ninja art: Toad oil bullet!"

Naruto's mind worked instinctively, knowing what set oil on flame. _'Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!' _As soon as the fire impacted the sticky oil, it raced back towards a stupefied Jiraiya. _'He knows Katon?!'_

He immediately disconnected the oil. He turned around on instinct to block the punch from the shadow clone, kicking it and causing it to dispel. However, chains of water rose up and wrapped around him in a flash. _'He knows suiton as well?!'_

However, he was not allowed to dwell on it for long. A cry distracted him. "Suiton: Dai Suigadan no jutsu!" (Water style: Great water fang projectile) Jiraiya stared dumbstruck at the twenty feet tall spinning water drill coming from above, with Naruto holding the dog seal. The drill crashed onto where Jiraiya was being held, creating a large explosion of water. Naruto stared at the spot where Jiraiya was, a wooden log in its place.

His danger sense rang true, warning him from behind. He _shunpoed _just in time to avoid the heel that would have sent him through trees. Jiraiya blinked when he missed. _'What was that?'_

Naruto then appeared in front of him, his face not giving away anything. Jiraiya rose an eyebrow, curious as to what the blonde was up to. "You're fast, ero-sennin. But are you faster than lightning?" he added a smirk in the end.

Jiraiya only had a microsecond to get confused before Naruto was covered in _red lightning _of all things. Since the whole area was covered in water from Naruto's earlier jutsu, it acted as the medium for the lightning to race towards Jiraiya. Jiraiya was obviously not faster than lightning, so he grunted when he was electrocuted. It only lasted for a moment, after which Naruto landed a direct kick in Jiraiya's gut, sending him flying backwards on his behind.

Honestly speaking, the fight should have been over by now. Naruto didn't need to let up the lightning, otherwise Jiraiya would have been finished by now. But….

Naruto watched dispassionately as Jiraiya crumbled. He flipped back to avoid his face from meeting the ground. Jiraiya grinned as he watched Naruto settle into a strange fighting stance. _'He's fast, and his taijutsu style is something I've never seen, but it had elements of the Snake style. He hits hard and fast, even with the weights. His instincts are excellent, and he doesn't let his guard down even for a moment. He knows four nature transformations and he is pretty well versed in them, considering he used three of them with only one or two seals and the lightning without a seal. He almost had me there, if I hadn't substituted at the last second. A jonin would be hard pressed to beat him right now.'_

"Alright brat, seals off!" He felt a little nervous at the grin that appeared on his godson's face, but shook it off. This time, he took the initiative, dashing forward towards Naruto.

However, he was once again surprised just how fast Naruto was. His speed was easily high jonin, with the reflexes to match. Jiraiya was hard pressed to find an opening the fight. He was forced onto the defensive when Naruto took out two kunai, held them in a reverse grip, and channeled wind chakra, causing the kunai to look like blue daggers. He was on the defense for a while before he managed to disengage with the help of an earth spike, sending Naruto back. Naruto threw the kunai mid-air with deadly accuracy, which Jiraiya avoided by the skin of his teeth.

Naruto landed and looked at him, and Jiraiya had to admit he was more than a bit unnerved at the grin Naruto was showing. Naruto then took out two exploding tags between fingers of both hands, held them in a cross and threw them such that they were on either side of Jiraiya, who scoffed.

"If you think two explosive tags can take me out, think again!" But then he cursed and jumped back, because _somehow,_ the tags were multiplying!

"Gojo Kibaku Fuda!" Naruto exclaimed. A series of successive explosions shook the area. When the smoke cleared, as expected, Jiraiya wasn't there. He spread out his senses, but it seemed Jiraiya had a way to block himself from sensor type ninjas. He sniffed the air, looking for the distinctive smell of oil, but other than in the clearing, it was nowhere. But he wasn't out of his options just yet. He still had yet to reveal his trump card.

_Hiraishin._

Jiraiya may have been able to block himself from his senses, but Naruto could always sense where he had placed his jutsu shiki. Along the course of the fight, Naruto had placed his formula on the ground in multiple spaces. All of them were in his vision, all except one.

Jiraiya in a tree fifty feet behind Naruto. Naruto wasted no time in flashing.

Jiraiya closely observed Naruto while under a jutsu that prevents anyone from sensing him. _'He is good, better than what Minato was at his age. He's faster than most of the jonin that I know. What is that technique, though? It seemed like a short ranged shunshin, but not the shunshin. Those explosions though…how did he create those? The tag multiplied into copies, but the explosive power didn't diminish one bit. It was a truly ingenious seal. He is easily mid to high-jonin level. But now that the enemy is hidden, what will you do next, Naruto?"_

He was flabbergasted, however, when Naruto disappeared in a blue flash. Naruto grinned as he connected a solid kick to the real Jiraiya's cheek for the first time in the fight, sending him flying through two trees and straight back into the clearing.

Jiraiya flipped onto his feet, ignoring the pain completely and staring open mouthed at Naruto, who used his shunshin-like technique to appear in front of him. "T-That was-"

He didn't get a chance to finish as Naruto disappeared in a blue flash again, appearing right in front of Jiraiya and punching him in the cheek. Jiraiya staggered back, clutching his tender jaw. Naruto disappeared again, reappearing behind Jiraiya in less than a second. A double palm thrust sent Jiraiya flying straight into the path of a tree. However, he already knew what he wanted to know.

Jiraiya easily landed sideways onto the tree, then jumping down. He stared at Naruto in shock, who was smirking. His voice was barely above a whisper, "You mastered the Flying Thunder God?"

Naruto nodded, still smirking. He kept smirking when Jiraiya chuckled, which progressed into deep bellowing laughs. He hadn't had this much fun in a fight since Minato. He calmed down and stared at Naruto with a grin.

"Kid, you could beat most jonin with what you have right there!" He remarked and his opinion of Naruto only rose higher when he replied.

"True, but there is always room for improvement," Naruto conceded. He still wanted to improve. He was still only thirteen years old, so he had a lot of room for improvement left.

Jiraiya asked with some hope in his voice, "Naruto, how would you like to become my apprentice?"

Naruto's eyes lit up, "Really?"

Jiraiya nodded with a smile. He would make a damn good shinobi out of this kid, even stronger than Minato.

Naruto jumped up in joy, "YATTA!"

Naruto looked at Jiraiya with his blue eyes shining, "Does that mean-"

He didn't even finish his question when a scroll appeared in Jiraiya's hands, offering it to Naruto. Naruto opened the scroll and his eyes softened when he saw the name of the latest toad summoner. _'Dad…' _His eyes moistened as he rubbed them. He took out a kunai and cut his right thumb.

Just as he was about to sign on it, Kurama stopped him. **'Wait Naruto!' **Naruto's thumb stopped short of the scroll, brow furrowing in confusion with Jiraiya. He looked over to Jiraiya, pointing towards his stomach and then to his mind. Jiraiya's eyebrows rose disbelievingly.

"The Kyuubi is speaking to you?!"

Naruto nodded absently as he put his thumb in his mouth. _'What is it, Kurama?'_

'**Don't sign the contract,' **the fox rumbled.

Naruto rose an eyebrow in challenge. _'Why not? They are powerful.'_

What he heard next caught him off guard. **'The fox contract is even more powerful.'**

Naruto couldn't help but blurt it out, "You want me to sign the fox contract?!"

Jiraiya's eyes widened, "There is a fox contract?" He couldn't believe that the Kyuubi of all beings was trying to persuade Naruto to sign a contract that was the same as its species. He watched as Naruto's face cycled through different expressions. First shock, confusion, challenging, speculation, agreement and finally resignation.

Naruto sighed, "Kurama wants me to sign the fox contract, ero-sennin."

"Kurama?"

Naruto gave him a look, "The Kyuubi has a name, you know. And he won't accept me signing any other contract than that of the fox." He looked up to Jiraiya with worried eyes, "Does that mean I won't be able to become your apprentice?"

Jiraiya was frowning, and that only fueled Naruto's worry. "Are you friends with Kyu…..Kurama?"

Naruto looked confused as to why Jiraiya was asking this question, but nodded. Jiraiya then surprised Naruto by chuckling. "No worries Naruto!" He declared. "You might not become a toad summoner or apprentice, but you will still be my apprentice! Who knows, you might even become a better summoner than me one day!"

Jiraiya was deeply hurt and sad that Naruto won't be able to become a toad summoner like him or Minato. But he really didn't want to antagonize the demon fox residing inside Naruto, not to mention the prophecy that the toads gave him. The key to Naruto's seal was with the toad clan, so Jiraiya was the only one who can give it to him now.

"He hates toads."

Jiraiya blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. "What?"

Naruto ignored Kurama's enraged yells, "He doesn't want to be associated with toads. The reason he explained for a long time how foxes are superior to toads in every way is because he can't be upfront about his feelings."

Jiraiya was finding it hard not to chuckle, lest the Kyuubi forcefully send some chakra into Naruto in an attempt to kill him. The aspect of Kurama he just learned…it was surprisingly human. He figured it was fair reason for Naruto not signing the toad contract. But that left a problem.

"Where will you find the fox contract though?"

Naruto answered, "Kurama told me that for shinobi to use summoning jutsu successfully, they have to have a contract with an animal. But if a shinobi performs the summoning jutsu without a contract, they will be transported to the realm of the animal they are most suited to have a contract with."

Jiraiya remembered with a grimace when he had tried to to the same and ended up on Mt. Myoboku. "That's true."

Naruto shrugged, "Then I will do the same, but my case is a bit special. Due to having Kurama, a fox demon inside me, I automatically qualify to become a fox summoner. So performing the jutsu will take me straight to the fox realm."

Jiraiya thought over it a bit. It was a sound theory, but if it didn't work, Naruto would have no way to come back. "What if doesn't work?"

Naruto blinked then winced, "Kurama doesn't like other people questioning his intelligence." Jiraiya paled, but nodded and told Naruto the hand signs. "You perform the hand signs boar, dog, bird, monkey and ram and slam your hand onto a surface. That's the gist of it."

'_Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram,' _Naruto made each hand seal slowly, his anticipation clear for Jiraiya to see. As soon as he completed the sequence, Naruto slammed his hand on the ground. A sealing array, which Naruto guessed was a contract seal, erupted and he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Jiraiya exhaled a sigh and sat down, waiting for his godson to return.

XXXXXXX

Naruto appeared in the realm of the foxes, shaking his head at the sight dizziness. The sensation of traveling was not unlike Hiraishin. He heard Kurama's voice in his head, which was filled with the emotion one goes through when they come back home, **'Welcome to Kitsune no kuni, Heiwa no oka. The hills of peace.'**

Naruto gazed awestruck at the realm of the foxes. It was the most beautiful place Naruto had ever seen, so exotic that it felt like the true symbolization of nature. It looked very much like a hill station, but instead of houses, a number of caves were on each hill. There were five hills in total, leading up to a huge mountain, the top of which was among the clouds. The place was so full of ambience that Naruto had unknowingly sat down just to admire the beauty of the place. He had never felt this close to nature ever before.

Naruto had never seen so many foxes in one place before.

'**Beautiful, isn't it?' **Kurama spoke in a soft tone, well as soft his rumbling voice could become.

Naruto agreed in an equally soft voice, afraid that if he spoke above a whisper it would shatter the peace of the place. "Yeah….."

He just kept gazing at the valley, a soft smile on his face, not even noticing that a brown fox had spotted him and alerted the others. A snarl interrupted his thoughts and he found himself gazing at around fifteen snarling foxes of different colors, who looked not the least bit friendly.

Naruto unconsciously straightened up while sitting Indian style, making eye contact with the lead, silver fox. He didn't mask himself, instead, he revealed who he truly was through his eyes. The fox stopped snarling, and adopted what looked like curiosity on his face. He looked into Naruto's eyes for several moments, Naruto not flinching away for even a moment.

"Who are you, human?"

The smooth tenor surprised Naruto only for a second, but he recovered. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. May I know yours?" Best to be polite rather than hostile.

"Osamu," came the reply. "What are you doing here, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto didn't know whether his answer would infuriate Osamu or not, but it would be unwise to lie. Foxes are extremely clever creatures.

"I was told to come here by Kurama to sign the contract of the foxes."

He gulped when he saw Osamu's face twisting, revealing his sharp teeth. It did not help that Osamu was almost as tall when Naruto was standing.

"You have some nerve…..addressing the lord of foxes by his name, without an honorific no less."

Naruto spoke before he would be forced to defend himself, "Because he lives inside me!"

Osamu blinked, not understanding Naruto's statement at first. But when he realized what it meant, his face twisted into a snarl once again and he got into an attack position. "Why you-"

"Stop."

A simple command from a soft voice caused all the foxes to turn around. Naruto found himself gazing at a regal looking red fox. The voice was obviously female, filled with power and superiority but at the same time, a warm and comforting tone. She looked beautiful.

The red fox strode towards Naruto, assessing him with her gaze. The foxes parted for her and soon she was looking down at Naruto. "Stand up, Naruto-kun."

Naruto blinked at the soft tone, but did as she said. Soon, his eyes were level with the red female fox. She gazed into his eyes for a moment, then spoke. "We have been waiting for you, Naruto-kun."

Naruto rose a puzzled eyebrow, "Waiting for me?"

The red fox smiled and said, "Come, we have much to talk about." She turned around and from the way everyone bowed to her, she must be a pretty important fox around here. He walked after her as she led the way.

"I understand Kyuubi-sama told you to come here?"

"Y-Yes, he did."

The red fox chuckled, "No need to be afraid, Naruto-kun. You are one of us now. Or you will be after you sign the contract."

Naruto then spoke, his confidence returning but still being cautious, "I never did get your name, Kitsune-sama."

The female fox chuckled, "That's because I never told you. My name is Naomi."

Naruto smiled, "Nice to meet you, Naomi-sama."

Naomi laughed softly, "You are very well-mannered, Naruto-kun. It is nice to meet you too."

Naruto then said, "Not to be rude or anything, but having an animal contract is pretty serious. So shouldn't I be tested if I am worthy of the contract or not?"

Naomi easily replied, "The word of Kyuubi-sama is proof enough. Believe me, if Kyuubi-sama didn't think you were worthy, he wouldn't have even told you that we exist."

Naruto listened as Naomi told him the history of how the Kitsune contract came to be. Many years ago, way before the era of the kage, Kyuubi was still a free demon. It was a misconception that Kyuubi randomly attacked human settlements. In truth, Kyuubi only attacked those human settlements where the greatest concentration of negative feelings was. People were right to fear the Kyuubi, but they started taking out their anger on the normal foxes, attacking and killing a fox whenever it came into their sights. Kyuubi listened to the plight of the foxes and created this realm in a remote corner of the world, so that foxes can live without having to look over their shoulders every few moments. The foxes settled down in these hills and over time, they became beings that were strong and intelligent enough to create a summoning contract of their own. However, there was only one person worthy enough to become their summoner.

Then, a prophecy was told that a boy judged worthy by their lord would become the next summoner of the foxes and would change the world. Naruto was frowning at the end of the explanation. "I get the history of the foxes, Naomi-sama, but I was mentioned in a prophecy?"

Naomi saw that Naruto was likely to prod at that, so she changed the subject. "A story for another time. For now, you need to meet the boss of the Kitsune." They arrived at a large gate, which stood well over a 120 meters. But what caused Naruto's mouth to drop were the guards that stood on either side of the doors. They were easily 70 to 80 meters, humanoid foxes like Kurama, with the opposable thumbs and all. There were wearing black, full sleeves haori and had swords strapped to their waists. The most notable features though, were the five tails that lay ate rest behind them. At Naruto's dumbfounded look, Naomi chuckled and explained.

"They are boss level fighters, Naruto-kun. The number of tails they have denote their level of strength and as such, rank is given out. But you don't need to know that right now." She nodded to the guards, who bowed deeply to her and proceeded to open the gates.

"Naomi-sama, you seem to be an important figure around here," Naruto commented as they proceeded inside.

Naomi winked at him, "If you must know, I am a member of the high council of the Kitsune." She laughed at Naruto's pale face and walked inside.

Naruto snapped out of his shock and ran after her. The sight on the inside was just as shocking as it was on the outside. Large foxes, with tails that varied from two to six, were inside sparring with each other with various weapons. Naruto found it curious that none of the noise was heard when they were standing outside the gates. _'A silencing barrier, perhaps?'_

He marveled at the sheer amount of chakra he was sensing from each of them. It was easily S-rank, surpassing the kage-level. Naruto himself had kage level chakra reserves due to having Kurama inside him and Uzumaki lineage. He looked around in awe, keeping up with Naomi, until he spotted a fox.

The fox was easily the tallest of all, standing a bit taller than everyone. And he had seven tails, making him the strongest fox here. Which meant he was the boss of the Kitsune. He had a deep blue fur, and wore a red haori which had the kanji for boss on the back. On his waist was strapped a chokuto.

Naomi walked up to the boss and as she did, Naruto noticed that everyone had stopped fighting and was bowing to her. After she acknowledged their now, they turned their attention to Naruto. As Naruto expected, they looked at him strangely, probably wondering what a human was doing in their realm.

Naomi walked up to the boss of the Kitsune, who bowed deeply to her as well. "Naomi-sama," his voice was deep like Kurama, but unlike the demon's rumbling, his voice was a deep, smooth baritone.

"Takeshi," she acknowledged. The now dubbed Takeshi straightened up and asked, "Naomi-sama, what can I do for you today?"

Naomi's voice was full of authority, "I want you to meet and judge the newest summoner of the Kitsune. The one who is mentioned in the prophecy."

Takeshi frowned and asked, "Has he already arrived then?" He then turned his eyes onto Naruto, who had to crane up his neck to see him. Takeshi bent down to take a greater look at Naruto. After a long moment, he dryly commented, "You're tiny."

Naruto almost face planted at that. Even the other foxes were sniggering with mirth. Only Naomi was the one watching the conversation with a serious eye. Naruto snarked at him, "Well, I can't be as tall as you now, can I?"

Naruto got the impression that he had just insulted the boss, if the sucking of breath and straightening of backs from the other foxes was any indication. Takeshi's eyes narrowed, but Naruto didn't show a hint of fear. He had come too far to get afraid now. "I see you are quite witty yourself. But I have to ask, Naomi-sama," he turned his attention to Naomi, "Who judged him worthy?"

"Kyuubi-sama."

The single answer was enough for Takeshi to widen his eyes, along with all the other foxes. "I see," he said slowly, straightening up. He gazed at Naruto, "What is your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uzumaki Naruto," he rolled the name over his tongue, testing it out. He held an arm out, "Climb on, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto wasn't startled this time, jumping onto the arm.

Takeshi looked at him with a critical eye, "If Kyuubi-sama has judged you worthy to be our summoner, then I have no doubt that you are strong. But physical strength isn't everything. As the Kitsune, we value wisdom and cleverness as much as we value our physical strength. So answer me this, Uzumaki Naruto: When you stop and look, you can always see it. If you try to touch, you cannot feel it. It cannot move, but as you near it, it moves away from you. What is it?"

Naruto thought for a moment and replied, "It's the horizon."

If Takeshi was surprised, he did an excellent job of hiding it. He chuckled, "What a sharp wit you have, Uzumaki Naruto. You are strong in the mind as well, as expected from someone who is to be our summoner." He surprised Naruto by gently setting his hand on the ground, saving Naruto from jumping from such a height.

He smiled, "The Kitsune will be glad to serve as your summons, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto grinned widely and put a thumbs up, declaring loudly, "I look forward to working with you guys as well!"

Takeshi chuckled loudly and said, "Naomi-sama, now that I have judged our summoner, perhaps you should give him the contract?"

Naomi nodded and slapped her right front foot on the ground. A sealing array spread out and in a puff of smoke, a large red scroll was revealed. Naomi spread it open and gestured Naruto to sign it. Naruto nodded took a kunai, cutting his thumb and letting some blood flow out. Naruto deftly put his name onto one of the columns, absently noting the name of the previous summoner.

Yamamoto Arashi.

Naruto couldn't make anything of that name, so he put it at the back of his mind. Placing the top of all his fingers beneath his name, he released a breath. He was finally a fox summoner now. He watched as Naomi rolled the scroll up and it disappeared into a puff of smoke, presumably returning to where it came from.

Naomi smiled at Naruto and said, "Congratulations, Naruto-kun. We welcome you as the summoner of foxes."

Naruto smiled and nodded. Naomi then addressed him, "Now that is over, I presume you know how to return?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow, "It's the same way isn't it? Kuchiyose without the blood?"

When Naomi nodded, Naruto smiled and immediately performed the seals, saying, "I'll summon you as soon as I can, Takeshi-san!" With that, Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

One of the foxes scoffed, "As if he could summon you, Takeshi-sama." He was not expecting a blade to his throat, with Takeshi holding it with narrowed eyes. He gulped as his boss growled, "I will not tolerate anyone insulting our new summoner. Is that clear?" He asked the question to everyone.

"HAI!"

Naomi muttered to herself, "Things are starting to look interesting on the horizon, Naruto-kun."

XXXXXXX

Only five seemed to pass, but even then Jiraiya was close to chewing his nails. He was about to go into panic mode when a puff of smoke revealed Naruto, standing triumphantly with arms crossed. Jiraiya almost melted in relief, then asked the relevant question. "Did you get it?"

Naruto grinned and spread his arms, "You are now looking at the newest summoner of the Kitsune clan!"

**AN: How was it? Was it good, surprising? Leave your answer in the reviews!**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 16

**AN: I know that I dropped a surprise by making Naruto sign the fox contract. But to be honest, I just don't see Naruto having a toad contract in my story. So to be on the safe side, you know, in case I decide to do Shippuden, I made him sign the fox contract. I already have a few ideas on the abilities of the sage mode, and they are **_**badass. **_**But we are getting off track. On a more important note, this will be my last update of the story for now. The next update will be after two weeks, since exams are coming up. Please bear with me. On a side note, some people seemed to appreciate that I added a reference from Apex Legends, but honestly, I have no idea what that is. On with the story!**

Naruto and Jiraiya established a schedule for Naruto's training. Jiraiya would create two shadow clones along with Naruto. He would remain with the original, while the other two would practice in fuinjutsu and ninjutsu. Naruto was already master of fuinjutsu, so there was not much teach him that he didn't already know. Instead, they were working on new seals that he could use in the future. Not just in the chunin exams, but against other opponents as well.

Naruto's grasp on ninjutsu was pretty solid, not to mention his vast repertoire of them. He knew more C to B-rank jutsus rather than the A-ranks, and he used them very efficiently. He usually preferred using suiton and futon, but his katon and raiton were equally good. Jiraiya was training him in a B-rank fire jutsu, Katon: Honoo Sude (Fire style: Blazing hands). Since Naruto knew that his opponent was primarily a taijutsu type fighter, he would have to fight hand to hand at some point.

But Naruto knew that the Hyuga preferred to stick with their _gentle fist. _He already had a good repertoire of mid to long-range jutsus to fight. Also, he knew the _gentle fist _targeted the _tenketsu, _the points in chakra network that control the flow of chakra. But just like Tenten, Neji couldn't have found a worse opponent since Naruto didn't have a chakra network, so Neji's fighting style was already null and void. Add to the fact that the Hyuga see learning elemental jutsu beneath someone of their stature, and Neji is totally crushed.

The original Naruto was concentrating on increasing the speed of his reflexes in taijutsu against Jiraiya. Naruto found out on the first day of their training that Jiraiya was holding back _a lot. _Their routing was something like this: first, the Sannin would check whether Naruto's resistance seals were actually affecting him or not. Based on that, he would let it remain or change them to a higher level. Then he would tell him to just defend.

Naruto would have impressive bruises by the end of the defensive sessions. After half an hour of relaxation, in which his bruises would get healed, Naruto would be told to try and hit Jiraiya. And every single day for the first week, he was only able to hit the man _five times _at the most. Granted, his fighting style, the elemental fist, was as aggressive as it was defensive, not to mention had a minority of made up moves that he usually employed to finish a fight, he was still far from landing critical hits on the Sannin.

'_Guess he isn't a Sannin in just name, after all,' _Naruto thought as he relaxed in the onsen. Today was the first Saturday of the month, and he and Jiraiya did nothing but a small, time limited spar to evaluate Naruto's skills. Naruto had mastered the Blazing Hands in a total of just four hours, and spent rest of the week trying to incorporate it into his fighting style. Jiraiya had released him early because Naruto was to do his own training in the weekends. And Naruto planned to hit a long overdue task: his father's simulation room.

He had five more levels to go, and Naruto planned to hit four of them in the following four weekends. He was confident that he would be able complete with some, if not full ease. But he would worry about that later. Right now, Naruto felt nothing but exasperation along with resignation as he watched his godfather giggle perversely as he peeked onto the women's side of the bath. After their spar, Jiraiya had suggested they go to the onsen to relax. Naruto, the naïve idiot that he was, readily agreed, saying he could use a hot bath.

However, Naruto had planned on discussing a few things with Jiraiya about what he learned during the first week of the training month while relaxing. This was the first time he learnt that when Jiraiya suggested they relax in a hot bath, he really just wanted to peek on the women. Even though there were only two of them on the men's side, Naruto sunk lower in order to hide the fact that he was here with Jiraiya.

"Oh ho ho….this is good, _very good," _Jiraiya giggled lecherously as he gazed on the naked women on the other side. Naruto glared at his back fiercely, making the tiger hand seal. Chains of water rose up and wrapped around Jiraiya, viciously yanking him back into the water.

"Can't you stop being a pervert for just a moment and relax?" Naruto dryly asked him as his head came out of the water. Jiraiya looked genuinely offended at the question.

"What! That's just not possible! Being a pervert runs in my blood!" Jiraiya proclaimed graciously, even pumping a fist to prove his point.

"As if that's something to be proud of," Naruto grumbled as he got up, wrapping his towel around his waist. If he stayed any longer, he would faint from dizziness.

He would hit the simulation later tonight, so right now he had nothing to do. As he walked towards his apartment, he absently wondered, "I wonder what kind of training Sasuke is going through."

Elsewhere, Sasuke sneezed, causing to slip into the water with his hand still alight with lightning, shocking him.

XXXXXXX

Naruto panted as the simulation got over, his opponent lay beaten before him. It wasn't tough, but it wasn't easy either. A wave of satisfaction passed over him as he went through the fight in his head. This time, he had managed inflict most of the bruises onto his opponent instead of himself.

His opponent was crafty, and his fighting style was something Naruto had never seen. He fought almost like he was dancing, weaving around in circular patterns. His hands were almost always on the ground and kicks were inverted, the force behind increased with each maneuver. However, Naruto was able find the weakness of this style. As offensive it was, only evasion tactics were used by his opponent to escape his attacks. There weren't many blocks, so the upper body's only way to not get hit is to keep continuously keep moving in an acrobatic way.

Naruto, however, was able land in a few attacks before getting annoyed. His opponent's patterns were too erratic to find an opening and exploit it at the same time. So Naruto himself improvised. An opponent with a style like that can be dealt with many ways, but the option that stood out the most to Naruto was the use of brute force. Up until now, Naruto had only attacked the opponent. However, Naruto enhanced his fist with his chakra and punched the ground hard. The force behind it was not what Naruto expected it to be. A few cracks spread around the impact area, but the force was enough to make his opponent stumble, just for a moment.

Just what Naruto needed. In a flash step, he appeared before the attacker and slammed his fist straight into the stomach. The human body isn't strong enough to withstand the amount of force that Naruto put in the punch. Added with the fact that the last punch was enhanced by the Blazing Hands, and his opponent was out for the count.

Naruto flashed into his apartment, groaning and looking forward to a hot shower after the session. He was to start his summoning training from Monday, so that was something to look forward to. He took off all his clothes and grabbed a towel from the rack, entering the bathroom and closing it. He sighed in relief as the hot water poured over him, washing all the grime and dirt from his body as well as soothing his muscles. He stood in there for over twenty minutes after which he turned off the shower, wiping the water off him and tying it at the waist. Exiting the bathroom, he shut the door and paused before for a moment before turning around, eyes narrowing. After a moment, he sighed and relaxed. He proceeded to get dressed and eat dinner before retiring to sleep.

He failed to take notice of the crow perched on the lamp post outside his apartment, an ominous sharingan in its eye socket.

XXXXXXX

"Yosh! You ready to learn the awesomeness that is summoning?" Jiraiya questioned loudly, grinning like he knew something Naruto didn't. Naruto just stared at him in a deadpan. Jiraiya began to feel uncomfortable under the deadpan, coughing into his fist in order to maintain his dignity.

"Alright, summoning is a pretty simple jutsu, with a little amount technicalities. The chakra requirements for each summon differ greatly. Take me for example. If I put a large amount of chakra in the jutsu, I am likely to get a bigger and a stronger summon, like a battle toad, than when I put in a small amount of chakra, which is when I get a messenger toad. You will have to adjust accordingly to your summons," he explained. Naruto had to admit that whenever Jiraiya was serious like, it was actually possible to see how intelligent he was.

Nodding to Jiraiya, Naruto bit his left thumb, allowing blood to come out. He then went through the hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground, pumping a little more than a quarter amount of his chakra. _'Kuchiyose no jutsu!'_

While the sealing array spread out from beneath his hands, nothing else happened. Naruto rose and eyebrow in confusion. Jiraiya noticed it and smirked, "While not shouting out the name of your jutsus is admirable and very useful as a habit, this one is a special case. You have to verbally pronounce it."

Naruto rolled his eyes at that and exclaimed, "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" In a large puff of smoke, it revealed that Naruto had managed to summon Takeshi, the boss of foxes. The large summon easily towered over the entire forest they were in, providing a great view to Naruto, who stood upon the fox's head.

Jiraiya was gaping at the gigantic summon that Naruto had managed to summon on his first try. _'Kami, I didn't know that the foxes were this powerful! This guy could easily tower over Gamabunta, and that guy's size is no joke at all! How the hell did Naruto manage to summon him on his first try?! And judging by the giant sword, this guy's easily skilled in kenjutsu. Naruto really did land a treasure with the fox contract,' _Jiraiya thought in awe as continued gazing the summon.

Takeshi blinked when he didn't find any threat in front of him, so he addressed his summoner. "Naruto-san?"

His voice snapped Naruto from his mental dance of victory. "Ah, Takeshi-san. I was practicing the summoning jutsu to get used to using it in the future."

Takeshi gave a sound of realization, "I see. In that case, allow me to give you a little advise. Whenever you use the Kuchiyose no jutsu, state what type of summon do you want to come to your aid. Battle summons are always on standby, so you don't need to state this for battle summons. But I have to say, it is nothing short of impressive for you to manage to summon me at your age," he complimented Naruto.

Naruto blushed at the praise and rubbed the back of his head, chuckling sheepishly, "Thank you, Takeshi-san. And please, just Naruto is fine."

Takeshi chuckled, "Very well, Naruto it is. And don't hesitate to call me if things get difficult for you, Naruto." He dispelled himself after that, returning to the realm of the foxes. Naruto easily landed in a crouch beside a stunned Jiraiya.

"What the hell was that brat?!" Jiraiya almost yelled with wide eyes.

Naruto gave him an innocent look, "What do you mean?"

Jiraiya pointed a finger at him, "Don't give me that look! How the hell did you summon the boss of foxes in your first try?! Even I didn't manage to summon the toad boss on the first try!"

Naruto gave him a confused look, "All you have to do is pump the chakra and based on the amount, you get the summon, right? I pumped a significant amount in the jutsu right now."

Jiraiya had calmed a little from Naruto's explanation, but was a little curious too. "Just how much did you put into it?"

Naruto shrugged, "A little over a quarter of my chakra." Jiraiya nodded absentmindedly, but then he really registered what Naruto said and whipped around to stare at him.

'_Is he for real?! A little over a quarter?! Most people his age would have had chakra exhaustion trying to summon the boss and they would still fail. But then again, his reserves are steadily being increased by the seal, so that's that,' _he thought speculatively.

"Well, brat, since you have shown that you can already summon the boss, we'll try to reduce the amount to see what you can get. Who knows, you might even get a personal summon of your own," Jiraiya suggested, mentally smirking when he saw Naruto's eyes lighting up at the words "personal summon."

Naruto grinned at the thought of having a fox partner. That would be so cool! He ignored Kurama's grumbles of **'I'm right here' **and cut his thumb, flashing through the hand signs and slamming his hand on the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

A burst of smoke revealed that he had managed to summon a white fox with black markings on its upper body, standing up to Naruto's waist. It had a white tail swaying lazily behind it while it peered up to Naruto with curious green eyes. "Who are you?" It's tone, a soft tenor, held a hint of curiosity mixed with cautiousness.

Naruto grinned and pointed towards himself with his thumb, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the newest summoner of the Kitsune. Nice to meet you!"

He watched as the fox's eyes brightened up and almost laughed when the fox introduced itself in a similar manner, pointing towards itself with its opposable thumbs, "You are the newest summoner?! This is awesome! My name is Raiden, the second son of the boss of the Kitsune and the most awesome Kitsune ever! Pleased to meet you!" Man, Naruto had to stop himself from glomping the fox because his voice was just _so damn cute!_

Naruto laughed at Raiden's introduction and said, "Pleased to meet you too, Raiden. You are actually the second summon I've summoned, you know."

Raiden frowned, "The second? Who's the first?"

Naruto smiled proudly, "Why, your father of course!"

Raiden's eyes widened, "You managed to summon my father?! You must be really strong then!" Naruto just closed his eyes and nodded, enjoying the moment and completely ignoring Jiraiya, who was gaping at the both of them.

'_Kami, he's just like Naruto!' _he thought as he observed them converse. Raiden seemed come to some realization as he tugged at Naruto's lower, gaining a curious look from the boy.

"Naruto, do you know what this means? You summoning me?!" His voice seemed to grow with excitement as he voiced his question.

Naruto raised a confused eyebrow, "No, what does this mean?"

Raiden shook his head with wonder, "It is a requirement to summon the boss of any summoning clan after you sign the contract, Naruto. However, whomever you summon next, becomes the summoner's personal summon!" He finished with a significant amount of glee in his voice.

Naruto also started grinning and at the end of his explanation, he engulfed the fox in a hug, burying his head in his fur. "Which means you are my personal summons now? We are going to have so much fun together, Raiden!"

The fox also laughed in happiness, and it was then that Naruto remembered something. "Oh, Raiden, I almost forgot. This is my godfather, Jiraiya," he introduced the smirking man sitting behind him.

"Finally remembered me, huh Naruto?"

"You are the toad sage?" Raiden's whisper had the unmistakable feeling of awe.

Jiraiya grinned and exclaimed, "Indeed I am!"

Raiden began to shake in excitement, "Kami-sama, I can't believe you have such cool company, Naruto! This is the first time I've met a summoner of the toad clan, let alone a sage!"

Jiraiya was basking in pride that even the summons he hadn't heard of before seemed to know who he was. But that feeling of pride quickly shattered when Naruto spoke, "Seriously, he's not that cool Raiden. He's a pervert."

Jiraiya shouted in defense, sounding extremely offended, "Wrong! I'm a super pervert!"

However, Raiden shook his head, amused by the antics of the large man, "I'll remember that in the future. It is nice to meet you, Jiraiya-sama." Turning to Naruto, he poked him in the chest, "Naruto, don't you forget about me. Summon me whenever you can, okay? Even if you just want to hang out or talk. I've been told I'm a great listener."

Naruto smiled and nodded, rubbing Raiden's head. Raiden then dispelled himself back to the summoning realm.

XXXXXXX

The next two weeks were spent like the first week, since Naruto already had an excellent grasp on his summoning. So they spent the next two weeks speeding up his taijutsu and adding jutsu to his arsenal. Naruto had learnt four more jutsu, one jutsu for each of his affinity and had improved his fighting speed considerably.

For lightning, he had learnt Raiton: Raikou Kousen no jutsu (Lightning style: Lightning beam technique) A B-rank jutsu. He had found this jutsu in the Nidaime's library. A beam of lightning twice as wide as his arm; if it hits the target, the target will experience a fantastic amount of pain and will be heavily stunned, not to mention unconscious from the pain. Even if it's a near miss, the effects will be of some effect due to small bolts of lightning escaping. While he won't be using this against Neji, it was still a very useful technique for live capture.

For fire, he had learnt Katon: Menimienai hi (Fire style: Invisible fire) A B-rank technique Tobirama had created with the help of someone named Uchiha Kagami. After molding chakra, Naruto would expel a single, colorless beam of gas from his mouth. However, upon getting in contact with a target, the gas will spontaneously combust, and the strength of the resulting explosion will depend on how much chakra Naruto put into it.

For air, he learnt the Fuuton: Reppuushou (Wind style: Gale wind palm) A C-rank technique created by someone in the Senju clan. After forming the needed handseals, the user basically had to send an open palm thrust towards his opponent, which is capable of causing severe injury. Naruto can also use this in conjunction with a thrown weapon to increase its power.

For water, he learnt not a jutsu, but the secret behind creating water out of thin air. It was what Tobirama was known for throughout the entire shinobi world. Usually, condensation is used to derive water from vapors. However, Tobirama did not have the luxury of creating vapor in the middle of a battlefield and then condensing it to form water. Therefore, he would cleverly saturate the air around him with his chakra, without losing control of it, so that whenever he was in need of water and no water body was near, he would simply mold the chakra-saturated air into water, thus negating the disadvantage that water could not be used without water bodies. What was amazing basically meant turning a battlefield into a geographical advantage. With your chakra saturating the air, Tobirama could literally use it to do anything.**[This is what I could come up. A bit of BS, so please bear with me]**

For fuinjutsu, he completed the chakra suppressing seal he was working on with Jiraiya. He made it so that upon application, the chakra of the target would be completely locked. Which meant they were completely helpless unless they had something to outrun him without chakra. Another thing he came up with was slapping resistance seals on his opponents. Simple, but very effective, something he would use against Neji.

All in all, with the help of his shadow clones, Naruto spent almost a week to entirely master the first three techniques, meaning using them with the minimum amount of handseals. He was still working on Tobirama's chakra saturation technique, using it discreetly without letting your enemy know. However, it's useless against a sensor. It was the last remaining week of the month, and Jiraiya had said that the last week was fully for Naruto train himself. That was good, since Naruto, with his nigh limitless spamming of shadow clones, had the chance to test his learnings in a battle simulation.

It was the second day of the last week and Naruto was taking a water break, his t-shirt and jacket having been discarded for a while to avoid them from getting drenched in his sweat.

"So, what do you think of my training, Raiden?" He asked after taking a sip of water.

Raiden watched his summoner, sitting some distance away. "Well, it's definitely intense. You sure work hard for all your genius, Naruto," he dryly commented. When he was first summoned, he was delighted when Naruto asked him to give him some company while he trained. He had then proceeded to watch with wide eyes as Naruto summoned an army of around five hundred shadow clones for an all-out battle against them. Raiden had asked, just out of curiosity, that how much chakra had Naruto just spent making the clones.

"I'd say, a full three-fourths of my total reserves," Naruto had replied after a moment. Raiden had dumbly nodded and watched as Naruto proceeded to decimate his army. He had paid close attention to what Naruto had said and was doing some mental calculations.

If Naruto spent a whole three-quarters of his chakra, that meant he would be close to light chakra exhaustion if he spent anymore. But Naruto had explained it to him that whenever shadow clones are dispelled, the chakra returns to the original, along with the memories of that clone. Raiden observed that Naruto had started with taijutsu, destroying a dozen clones at first. Then, he used an elemental jutsu, whether it be fire or air or water or lightning, to destroy another group. He would then switch back to taijutsu, then use a jutsu again.

It was a cycle, Raiden realized after intense observation. Naruto never used any jutsu if he didn't have sufficient chakra to not collapse into exhaustion. But the funny thing that Raiden realized, was that he couldn't understand whether Naruto was losing chakra or gaining it back. If it was simply taijutsu, Naruto would be gaining all the chakra back without any expenditure of his remaining reserves. But since he occasionally used a jutsu, it was hard to determine. In the end, he just presented Naruto with his theory and asked his opinion for it.

Naruto had thought for a whole five minutes and then replied, "I'll put a pin on it, but I'm not thinking about it now." Turns out, Naruto was mentally exhausted as well, because he gained the memories of five hundred clones in just two hours, so he won't be exerting anymore today. Raiden was surprised he had remained conscious after all that stress.

Naruto chuckled, "You say it like geniuses don't have to work hard." To his surprise, Raiden nodded, completely supporting his point. Naruto corrected him right then.

"Raiden," he said softly, sitting beside the fox so that his head was on Naruto's thigh, "That is a belief which isn't right. People misunderstand what genius actually means. They believe that someone who achieves something great without appearing to work hard is hailed as a genius. But that's not true.

"Genius is just a great capacity for hard work. Take me for example; I have excellent chakra control, which allows me to grasp jutsus very quickly. But learning jutsus and mastering them are two totally different things. It is my genius that allows me to grasp concepts so quickly and easily," he stroked Raiden's head tenderly, having the fox's undivided attention, "But only through hard work can I master them completely. That is what genius is. Genius is the beginning of something great, but it is hard work that sees you through the finish. Genius is nothing without hard work."

Raiden gazed at Naruto with wide eyes, who just looked at him with a small smile on his face. The fox could only shake his head in awe as he began to see Naruto in a new light. "I always thought that geniuses never have to work hard, but I never looked it from your point of view," he mumbled, his head resting on Naruto's thigh. Naruto was wise beyond his years, that was for sure.

"Why, you got some genius you are competing against?" Naruto enquired.

Raiden just sighed and took comfort in Naruto's scratches behind his ears. "My elder brother, Toshi, is a part of the trackers of the Kitsune, and he is regarded a genius in almost every way. He already has gained two tails and is close to achieving the third. My family always says I should be more like him," he grumbled.

"He sounds interesting."

"Trust me, he's a douchebag," Raiden replied as they collapsed into a peaceful silence. While Naruto wanted to say something, he kept quiet, not wanting to interfere in what was clearly a family matter. Raiden, on the other hand, was thinking about what Naruto had said. If what he said was true, did Toshi really worked that hard to be where he was? Was he just seeing the tip of the iceberg? More importantly, if hard work was the key, was he not working hard enough?"

The questions plagued his mind for a while as Naruto kept scratching his ear.

So lost in their thoughts they were that they didn't even notice the presence behind them. "The sunset looks really beautiful from here," a female voice commented from behind them. Their reactions were instantaneous.

Raiden was on his hind legs on an instant, taking the offensive stance of the Kitsune fighting style, a snarl displaying his sharp teeth. Naruto himself had whipped two of his kunai into his hands in an instant, coating them in wind chakra and getting into his usual offensive stance, muscles tensed for any action. Only when he got a good look at the speaker did he relax.

"Raiden, relax. She's a friend," he sighed. Raiden looked at his partner before relaxing, turning his eyes onto the girl.

Temari looked at both of them with something skin to amusement. She inspected the fox, then Naruto. Based on what she had seen from the last five minutes, they seemed to be pretty close. She had also gotten a good look at the bare upper body of Naruto, both front and back and she had to admit, he was definitely hot, hotter than most of the males she had seen. She marveled at how defined his muscles were for his age; his chest muscles were clearly developed for someone his age, not to mention his abs. The perfectly chiseled six-pack caused her to blush deeply, imagining not-so-straight thoughts about her and Naruto being in an intimate position, being embraced by his powerful arms-

"How can I help you today, Temari?" The voice broke her out of her thoughts and she desperately tried to regain control of her blush. Naruto and Raiden, who now was a little taller than Naruto's shoulder on his hind legs, looked at her quizzically. Raiden turned to Naruto and looked at his face, as if looking for something.

He smirked when his nose picked up traces of arousal from both Naruto and Temari. If he was smelling correctly…

"Naruto, is she your girlfriend?" He bluntly asked, not even hiding his smirk when both of them turned to him. Temari looked at him with with slight anger, her blush not receding at all. Naruto looked at him with wide eyes of disbelief and a slightly open mouth. Temari regained her wits faster than Naruto, who still looked agape at his partner's suggestion.

She almost swung her fan at Raiden. "Why you-" That was as far as she got when she stopped when Naruto got in front of the fox, holding a palm up and a small smile on his face. "It was a joke, Temari. He's a bit of a joker."

Turning his face so that he faced Raiden and and Temari couldn't see him, he gave a death glare to Raiden. The fox would have been intimidated greatly if not for the slight blush on Naruto's face. "Go back," Naruto mouthed. Raiden winked at him and mouthed back, "All the best," before going back home.

Naruto barely resisted from bashing the fox's head. He took a deep breath and turned back to Temari, whose eyes were a bit lower than his. He became acutely aware for the first time that he was naked above his waist. He tried to salvage the situation with some light flirting, "You see something you like?"

He saw as Temari's eyes snapped to his and had to hide his smirk at the embarrassment swimming in her eyes. He then saw her take a deep breath herself and calm down. She then smirked and replied in the same, light flirting tone, "Don't mind if I do. And it's quite a sight." She kept her smirk from widening when she saw him look away.

Naruto decided to address the issue, "So, any reason why you are here?" He walked towards his t-shirt and jacket. He quickly got dressed and faced her, arms folded.

She put one hand her hip, her smirk turning into a smile, "I just wanted to say, nice job in the prelims. You gave the dog boy quite the beating."

Naruto smirked and shrugged, "I had something to settle with him, that's all. And your fight was something to see as well. I feel bad for my fellow Konoha nin," he complimented, sitting down. He was surprised when Temari walked and sat down in front of him as well, a little closer than what was appropriate. _'But I'm not complaining,' _he mentally smirked.

She shrugged, "Thank you for the compliment, but I believe it was just an unlucky matchup for her." Naruto nodded in agreement, having come to the same conclusion as before. He thought if he should ask her what was the jinchuriki of Suna doing in a foreign village, especially during something as important as chunin exams, but refrained. He could ask her later.

Temari looked at Naruto closely. He was quite relaxed, but his position was such that he would be able to react instantaneously if she were to attack him now. Speaking of which…..

"Say, would you care for a spar?" She asked, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow. He gestured to himself, "As you can see, I have just finished today's training, so I'm quite tired." He watched her give a silent "aah", but the disappointment was clear. He had to give her points though; she was quite bold in her attempt at trying to learn his what his trump cards were.

Too bad.

"But," her head lifted up, "I wouldn't mind a short taijutsu spar." His smirk told her exactly that he knew why she asked for such a request. He hadn't said it, but he already knew why she was there. No point in hiding now, though.

"You are irritatingly smart," she grumbled, causing him to chuckle. He got up and held out a hand for her to get up. She looked at it for a moment and scoffed, but grabbed it nonetheless, allowing him to pull her up. Naruto looked down at the hand he held and just felt it for a moment. It was a bit smaller than his own, yet it fit perfectly in his own. He heard a small cough and looked up to see Temari's blushing face in a scowl. He immediately let go of it, a blush creeping up his face. He realized how creepy he must have looked. He cleared his throat and gestured behind him, "Shall we?"

That's how the next four days went. Naruto would summon hundreds of clones for an all-out battle to improve his application of newly learnt skills and techniques, fight for over two hours and then relax. Temari would come by sometime in the evening and they would spar. Naruto usually limited the spars with taijutsu so as to not accidently reveal some of his tricks. Temari had caught on as well, and didn't protest at all, preferring to keep her tricks a secret as well. They would make small talk after the spar, and then Naruto would offer to escort her back, but she would playfully refuse every time. Naruto always thought that she was being observed, which is why she refused every time. She didn't want to be seen getting too friendly with a Konoha nin.

Today was Saturday and so, Naruto planned to hit the simulation room one last time before the chunin finals. He had already completed till the fifth level, each time more difficult than the last. But every level gave him ideas on where to improve, which he practiced all week and apply it onto the next level. So this is why Naruto was at the apartment right now, sitting on the floor of his bedroom and looking at the thirty kunai in front of him.

He had already imprinted the seals on the handle of the tri-pronged kunai. One was the jutsu shiki for the Hiraishin, and the other was the seal he had developed so that the kunai could be stuck on the surface of water as well, allowing him to use them in the areas where water bodies were.

'**You seem to be thinking something about last night, Naruto,' **Kurama commented from within.

Naruto kept gazing at the kunai as he replied, _'Last night…I can't figure out why they are doing this.'_

_**Flashback**_

Late last night, Naruto was sitting on top of his father's head, idly wondering on how the villagers would react to his reveal. _'I can think of two things. Either they would start worshipping me, or the villagers who have some morals left in them would feel guilty enough to commit suicide based on the reason that they tortured the son of their beloved Yondaime for years. What do you think Kurama?'_

A chuckle sounded from within his mind. **'You know how the villagers are, Naruto. They would probably try to suck up to you after knowing just who you are, but I wouldn't mind witnessing the second option. What about you? Which one do you prefer?'**

Naruto sighed at Kurama's insinuation, _'I don't prefer either one. I would actually prefer if they just treated me like any other villager, but that won't be happening anytime soon, considering I'm the heir to two major clans of Konoha, lord if I make chunin.'_

Kurama huffed, **'You humans confuse me terribly. An excellent opportunity for you to crush them beneath your heel for what they have done to you and you are considering letting them go? I would have made a meal out of them if I were you.'**

Naruto chuckled, _'I don't see what's wrong in being the better man, Kurama.'_

Kurama was about to say something when he sensed an influx of chakra about two miles away, along with negative feelings. **'Naruto, can you sense that?'**

Naruto raised an eyebrow but spread out his senses nonetheless, sitting up straight when he too sensed the amount of chakra being molded. Just who was molding a chunin level amount of chakra at this time in the night?

Making a half-ram seal, he used a series of body flickers to get where the chakra signatures were. When he reached there, he was horrified what he witnessed.

He saw the prelims proctor, Gekko Hayate, locked in a battle with the sand jonin, Baki, if Naruto remembered correctly, and was losing, badly. He had numerous injuries on his person. If that blade of wind cut him, Hayate could kiss his life goodbye. He immediately acted. First priority was to get Hayate to the Hokage tower.

Baki held a blade of wind in his right hand, the other hand holding the sword of the proctor. He had to admit, Hayate was exceptionally skilled at kenjutsu and had almost gotten him, but his sickness slowed him down terribly, allowing Baki to gain the upper hand. "Try stopping this blade of wind!" He was about to shove it into Hayate's chest when a blur grabbed Hayate and dodged, making Baki miss completely.

Baki had just enough time to turn to his left, where he had seen the blur go, to witness Hayate disappearing in a blue flash. He cursed under his breath. _'Dammit, he escaped! Kazekage-sama won't like this.' _He vanished in a wind shunshin to inform his leader. The thought of the flash completely missed him.

Naruto appeared in the Hokage's office, surprised to see the his jiji still working at this time of the night. ANBU surrounded him in an instant, the only reason not skewering him because he still held Hayate in a fireman's carry.

Hiruzen immediately stood up, "Tora, get Hayate to the medical wing of this tower immediately!"

The ANBU stepped forward, took Hayate from Naruto and vanished. Hiruzen turned his attention to Naruto and spoke in a commanding voice, "Report."

Naruto straightened up and narrated what happened. At the end of his report, Hiruzen sighed heavily and sat down. "I didn't know it was this bad."

Naruto asked in slight confusion, "What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen folded his hands and rested his chin on it, "Naruto, on your suspicions, I assigned Gekko Hayate to keep a watch on Yakushi Kabuto. He was to report me any unusual activity that concerned the target. It seems that tonight is the first time he witnessed something significant, but was discovered and was likely going to be killed in order to keep the information from being discovered." He looked Naruto in the eye, "It is most likely that Konoha is facing the possibility of an invasion from Suna."

Naruto folded his arms, "I didn't know Suna had enough manpower to take on the strongest of the five on its own. In fact, from the books that I've read, Suna is the weakest of the five."

Hiruzen shook his head, "I know the Kazekage well enough to understand that he's not stupid enough to make such a bold move. Which means he has an ally." He had a suspicion as to who it was, but that was for him to deal with.

Naruto nodded, "That would surely be the case, but we can rule out the possibility of Kumo, Iwa and Kiri attacking. Kiri is still wrapped up in a civil war, Iwa is still recovering from the defeat in the last war. Kumo wouldn't want to break the peace treaty you had established over the Hyuga just yet, which leaves…"

Hiruzen filled in the blanks, "There's a new up and coming hidden village, whose genin have participated in the exams. Otogakure. It is possible, but we don't know for sure. Naruto, you must keep this meeting a secret. Not a word is to be let out, do you understand?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

"Dismissed!"

_**Flashback end**_

'**Why don't you ask your vixen? She might have an answer,' **Kurama suggested, both half-seriously and half-innocently.

Naruto absently nodded, until he registered what Kurama said. _'What do you mean by that? Temari isn't my vixen!' _he corrected him in a sputter. Just what was the kitsune trying to say?!

Kurama laughed, **'I'm the only being in this world, Naruto, who you can't fool! I've seen the way you look at her. You want to just grab her an-'**

'_SHUT UP!' _He shouted to the being inside him, his face a deep shade of red. He shook his head violently to shake off the train of thoughts Kurama had started. He couldn't imagine himself pinning her to a wall-

He banged his head on the floor to clear it. _'Why did you suggest it? These thoughts are hard to get rid of, you know!' _

Kurama, the bastard, just laughed heartily. Naruto decided to eat at Ichiraku tonight, just because he felt too lazy to cook dinner. Kurama grumbled from within, saying that he always made his clones cook. Naruto easily blocked him out. Gathering and sealing the kunai up in a scroll, he put the scroll in is closet and stepped outside his building. Leisurely walking in the direction of the ramen bar, he was surprised to see Temari about a hundred meters from him, looking rather annoyed. She seemed to be searching for someone, and Naruto had an inkling as to who she was searching for. Naruto observed her looking around before catching his mop of blonde hair and marching in his direction, scowl firmly etched onto her face and anger rolling off her in waves. He sighed and steeled himself, for he knew what was about to come.

Temari reached him quickly and stopped in front of him, hands on her hips. The anger was visible in her eyes, "Where were you today? You missed our spar!"

Naruto didn't know if he should feel afraid of her or amusement about whether how cute she looked when she was angry. So he just held up his hands in defense, "I know, but I have a legitimate reason for missing it."

Temari folded her arms, "Then let's hear it!"

Naruto put his arms in his pocket and thought on how to tell her about his simulation fight this night. "You see, hime," he grinned at the blush that came on Temari's face, "Since Monday is the day of the chunin finals, my sensei wanted to have one last fight to test my skills. So he told me to rest the whole day to be in top condition for our fight," the lie came out smoother that what he thought. And it was partially true; level six was no joke, and Naruto wanted to be in peak form for it.

Naruto got an idea, "How about as an apology, I take you out for dinner?" He didn't even stutter this time, he thought proudly.

Temari thought that it was a lie, but she couldn't fault for his sensei having to evaluate his student one last time before the exams, so she believed it. She blinked at the sudden question, and a smirk spread on her face. She took a step closer to him, "Is this another date, Naruto?"

Naruto smirked as well, internally jumping in joy, and took a step forward himself. Their faces were inches from each other, and he could vaguely feel the air she was exhaling. It was a unique, sweet and salty flavor. "Only if you want it to be," he whispered huskily. He vaguely remembered that they were in the middle of a market. He, however, didn't expect Temari to lean forward so that her lips were a hair's breath away from his own. "Oh I do," she returned. She was surprised when Naruto suddenly backed away, grinning playfully. Before she could feel hurt about her advances being rejected, an arm was draped across her shoulder, pulling her close. She yelped and steadied herself against what she felt to be Naruto's upper body.

"Then I really hope you don't mind if we go to Ichiraku. If I had known, I would have planned earlier," Naruto tried to play it smooth. It was a risky move, pulling Temari into a side hug. He had expected to be bashed in the head by her fan, but when she didn't, he relaxed and simultaneously celebrated inside his mind.

'_She likes me!' _Kurama felt nauseous at how much joy was filled in that single thought. For a being of hatred such as himself, joy was his kryptonite. So he just tried to ignore it as much as he could. Such sappiness didn't suit him.

Naruto kept his arm around Temari's shoulder and started walking in the direction of the ramen bar. Temari had to adjust her arms, so she just put one hand on his side. "I really don't mind," she coolly replied. But she was barely keeping from letting a goofy smile spread on her face. She knew she liked Naruto, to the point of having an intense crush on him. But being in such close, physical contact with him only after knowing him for only a short time was almost overwhelming.

The trip was short, lasting only five minutes. Just when they were within fifty meters of the bar, Naruto removed his arm from her shoulders, instead enveloping her hand in his own, giving it a small squeeze. He gave a warm smile to Temari, who blushed lightly, but returned the smile and squeezed back. They entered the ramen bar, and Ayame was the first to spot them, and then she spotted them holding hands and smiling.

She promptly squealed in happiness, increasing the blush on Naruto and Temari's faces, but neither let go of each other's hands. Teuchi came running out of the back in response to his daughter's squeal. When he saw the reason for her squeal, he himself grinned in parental pride.

"Naruto! So you finally made it official, I see," he commented. Naruto and Temari blushed even more at this, but Naruto was the one who spoke, "We haven't, actually. But I will in the near future," he said with a wink towards Temari, managing to somewhat reduce his blush. Temari, however, just barely kept from hitting him for embarrassing her. The only reason she didn't because of what Naruto said.

Ayame clasped her hands together and sighed dreamily, "Oh, you two look so cute together!"

Naruto and Temari slid onto the seats, side by side. They gave their orders, but when they were served, they were surprised by Teuchi's announcement. "Today's meal is on the house. Think of it as a congratulatory gift from us," he added a wink in Naruto's directions.

Naruto and Temari tried to deny that they weren't in a relationship- _yet, _sounded in both of their minds- but Teuchi easily waved their sputters away. "Trust me," he said, "Adults know it when two people are meant to be together or not."

That sealed it. Naruto and Temari and both reached the peak of embarrassment after hearing that statement, but there was nothing they could do until they finished their meals. Deliberately avoiding meeting each other's eyes, they quietly finished their meals and got out of there.

Temari was the first one to break the silence between them, "Those folks are weird. They kept teasing us all the time," she grumbled in annoyance.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Don't be like that. They are some of the very few people in the village that care about me."

That sparked Temari's interest. She didn't know Naruto only had a small amount of people close to him. "What do you mean when you say, some of the very few?"

It was a question of curiosity, so Naruto couldn't fault her for that. But the memories of years of loneliness resurfaced, and some of that sadness must have shown on his face, for Temari hastily backtracked, "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to!"

Naruto waved away her apology, "It's ok, you were just curious. But if you don't mind, I'd like to keep the answers to myself." His tone was soft, but the request was clear in his voice.

Temari nodded, but wondered just what had happened to Naruto for him to get so sad so early in his life. She couldn't help but compare Naruto and Gaara in that aspect, both of them shunned by the village in some way. She felt for him, just like she felt for Gaara. Gaara had been chosen by their father to bear that particular burden of a bijuu. Because of that, everyone in the village had ostracized Gaara in the extreme. Their father felt that Gaara was too dangerous, which is why he hired assassins to kill him. That was the last straw for Gaara. He became cold, so cold that the slightest provocation would cause him to kill someone, without batting an eyebrow.

She tried to show him that she still cared for him as his older sister, but the distrust was so much deep rooted into him that he distanced himself even from her. However, Naruto wasn't like that. He was willing to trust others, like her. But another problem lay in front of her. If tried to comfort him, it would just be a lie, for they would be standing on the opposite sides of a war just two days later. So she just held his hand, trying to give what little comfort she could.

Naruto was surprised when he felt a warm hand holding his own. He saw Temari smiling at him, and he smiled in return, knowing that she was trying to comfort him. He turned his eyes back forward and saw an alley coming up. He felt extremely bad for what he was about to do, but as a shinobi of Konoha, the village came before everything, even personal feelings.

So he pulled her into the alleyway, earning a surprised yelp from her. However, she was well trained. Her reflexes were fast, but nowhere near his own. He immediately grabbed her right hand with his left, pinning it above her head. Just as her left reached for her fan, he grabbed it with his right and forcefully pinned it alongside her other hand. He positioned himself carefully but swiftly, putting his legs slightly in between of her two legs so that his privates would be protected. He kept his head at enough distance so that she couldn't headbutt him and break his nose. All in all, Temari had nowhere to go, no matter how much she thrashed.

He raised right leg a little, then gently stamped it on the ground, erecting a special privacy barrier around them. This was one of his father's creation. You can hear the sound from outside, but the sound from within the barrier won't be heard from outside. Also, a pulse of chakra within the barrier won't be able to be felt from outside. Which meant no pulses of chakra could be sent to signal for help. Tricky business to use it with his feet, but thanks to his excellent chakra control, Naruto managed.

Temari was surprised just how swiftly he was able to outmatch her reflexes and pin her to a wall. She felt hurt inside, a feeling of betrayal that was overshadowed by the boiling rage. She even felt slight fear with the way they were positioned. She turned furious eyes onto him, but froze when a wave of killing intent passed over her.

Looking up into his eyes, she felt afraid when all she saw was a freezing coldness, absent of the complete warmth they were filled with from earlier. The killing intent was not a problem though as she just brushed it aside. Gaara repeatedly used it on them, so the effect was null. She tried to project her rage on him.

"_What are you doing, you son of a-"_

"What is Suna planning?"

That question stopped her cold, eyes widening. She suddenly had an idea of what this was all about. "W-What?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, freezing her with just his stare. She wasn't even thrashing in his arms now. "I don't like repeating myself, so pay attention. What is Suna planning to do?"

Temari tried was so frozen with his stare, the stare that promised a lot of pain if she didn't answer. She hastily sent out a pulse of chakra, hoping someone would sense it and come to her help. "It's useless," he coldly informed her, "I've put up a barrier around us. No one would be able to sense that pulse of chakra. In fact, no one would be able to sense anything, let alone hear." Her hopes of getting helped crashed and shattered. She also noticed that the killing intent had increased substantially, causing her to shake a little.

"I can easily deduce that Gaara is an unstable jinchuriki. Yes, I know that," he said in response to her wide eyed look. "No village would dare send an unstable jinchuriki into another village. I also witnessed your sensei," he sneered at the word, "attacking a fellow Konoha nin with the intent to kill, possibly to prevent some important information from being discovered by us. So I'll ask again…What is Suna planning to do?"

Temari couldn't believe that Naruto knew about what Gaara was. Add on to the fact, he had apparently witnessed Baki-sensei attacking a Konoha nin. And, she had been captured by Naruto for information on the invasion. They were already on the cusp of being discovered, so she couldn't see many options.

Sighing with resignation, she admitted, "I'm sure you know of the new village, Otogakure." Upon seeing his nod, she continued. "A while before the chunin exams, our father, the Kazekage, was approached by the leader of Otogakure. A man known as Orochimaru."

Naruto did not allow Temari to see his shock at that piece of news. He just nodded Temari to continue, "I don't know what they talked about, but father began planning for an invasion a while after their meeting. He informed us that Otogakure would be aiding us during the invasion to cripple Konoha. It was his plan let Gaara loose during the invasion. Since Gaara has full control of his bijuu, he would be set free to-"

"-destroy the village in his unleashed form. Is that right?" Temari nodded, knowing that the invasion had practically failed, now that she had divulged the information.

Naruto released a sigh, "I suspected as much."

Temari tried to hide the quiver in her voice, "But why did you question me yourself instead of handing me over to the Hokage?"

Naruto removed the cold gaze from her, unconsciously making her relax. He looked back at her with a worried gaze, "I don't think you would have liked being subjected to the interrogation department. Trust me, they aren't nice."

Temari wholeheartedly agreed with that. She didn't even want to imagine what they would have done to get the information out of her. She looked up, and it was then she realized their positions. Her arms pinned to the wall, Naruto's legs in between hers and bodies pressed to each other's. Oh, and don't forget that their lips were once again, separated by mere inches.

A blush of massive proportions came onto her face as she locked gazes with Naruto, who realized the same thing as her. His face also matched the same shade of red as hers as he locked his gaze with her. An awkward silence descended upon them, which Temari broke after several moments.

"Naruto…." She whispered, trying to think of _something _to say.

But Naruto was on a different track from hers. This was his chance, his moment. And he was, in absolutely no way, wasting it. Not to mention, if he did waste this chance, Jiraiya would beat him to within an inch of his life _and then some. _So he was going to seize it with both of his hands.

"Ssshhh….." he shushed her softly and leant forward, gently capturing her lips.

It was the most pleasurable feeling Naruto had ever experienced. Her lips were soft, lingering with the taste of the ramen she ate earlier, which made her taste all the better. Temari went wide eyed for a moment, but she closed her eyes in pleasure and slowly returned the kiss, molding her lips with Naruto. She knew it was wrong of her. They were enemies on the opposite sides of a war now. They shouldn't be kissing like this, but she couldn't help herself. She had, ever since that chaste kiss from that day, wanted to see for herself how Naruto's lips tasted like.

Naruto felt like he was on cloud nine. He decided to take it a little further and bit her lower lip, causing her to gasp. He took advantage of it and pushed his tongue into her mouth, exploring it. He didn't know why, but he wanted to taste more of her, _feel _more of her. So he released her hands and put them around her waist, pulling her flush against him.

Temari was stunned when she felt something wet entering her mouth and exploring it slowly. It took her a moment to realize that it was Naruto's tongue, but instincts were faster than her thinking. So even before she decided what to do, she was already massaging her tongue against Naruto. She couldn't even begin to describe the pleasure she was feeling. When Naruto released her hands, hers automatically went around his neck, pulling him close and further deepening their kiss. She could feel how warm Naruto was, since they both had practically molded their bodies together.

They separated for a moment to take a breath, a string of saliva connecting their mouths. Before Naruto could even begin to think whether to do it again or not, Temari had already connected their mouths again, kissing him with more fervor than the previous kiss. Her tongue aggressively invaded his mouth, exploring it and massaging his own tongue with more force than what his tongue did to hers. Her one hand went up to his head, running through his hair.

Naruto did not even think, he just enthusiastically returned her actions. His hands began to wander; first, they explored her back, then they explored her sides, each action gaining a pleased moan or sigh from Temari's mouth. He slid his hands lower, letting the primal part of his brain take control. His left hand wrapped around her waist again, while his right slipped lower and gently squeezed her butt.

Temari felt like she was in heaven with all the pleasure she was feeling. In the back of her mind, she wondered whether Naruto was just this good or was it the euphoria of the first kiss. Either way, she wasn't complaining. She was about to break their kiss when one of Naruto's hands gently squeezed her butt.

Pleasure racked through her body, and she released a loud moan of approval and pleasure. Naruto, taking it as a sign to continue, gently squeezed her other cheek, being rewarded with another moan. Suddenly, he didn't know why, he decided that Temari was standing a bit lower than what he liked. So he bent a little, taking hold of her inner thighs from behind, and hefted her up, pushing her against the wall, causing her to give out a surprised yelp, but she didn't break their kiss. Instead, her arms tightened around his neck while her legs wrapped around him, locking behind his back, their bodies pressing against each other even more. Temari's dress slid up from her thighs a little, exposing a bit of her thighs and skin for Naruto to feel. Naruto repositioned both of his hands on her clothed butt and squeezed, gaining moans of approval from Temari.

They kept kissing like that for five more minutes, with Naruto occasionally and simultaneously squeezing both of her butt cheeks and gaining moans of pleasure, after which Naruto finally heard the rational part of his brain that was screaming _'YOU ARE GOING TOO FAST, YOU IDIOT! STOP!' _

Temari too, finally felt amidst all the pleasure she was feeling that they were going too far too fast and was about to break their kiss and leave, forcibly if she had to, but she didn't need to. Naruto broke their kiss first, looking at her with reluctance. No words needed to be said by either of them. Naruto gently released her, her legs coming to rest on the ground and his hands coming to rest on her waist, while hers moved to his shoulders. Both of them were breathing heavily, tasting each other's breath, trying to come down from the high.

"…..I think we can both agree not to mention this to anyone," Naruto found his voice first. Temari silently nodded as both of them took a step away from each other, both feeling the lack of touch. Temari turned and walked away from Naruto, straightening her dress and smoothing out wrinkles when Naruto stopped her with his voice.

"On the day of the finals…I'll see you on the other side," he said in a whisper, but each word was clearly heard by her. A lone tear slipped from her right eye, which she furiously wiped away. She did not care whether he saw her wiping it away or not. "Good night," she hastily whispered and in a blink of an eye, she was gone.

Naruto was still trying to get his thoughts in order. Absently, he raised his foot and stomped softly on the ground, muttering "Kai" under his breath, releasing the barrier. Only then he gave a reply to the empty surroundings, "Goodbye…Sabaku no Temari." He flashed away after that. He had a simulation to demolish.

He realized that he might he displayed lust on the surface, but deep inside, he knew it. He didn't know how or why, nor did he care. He just knew it. Temari was the one for him. He felt genuine feelings towards her. He didn't know how to describe them. He knew that it was far past the "like" stage. All he knew was that if he got the chance to hold her again, he would be grabbing it. And he would not let go of her that time.

Unfortunately, that was the first and the last moment he would ever have with her, for in just two days, they would be on the opposite sides of a war, trying to kill each other. And Naruto knew that he won't be able to do it. He won't be able to kill Temari if she came before him. He had lost her, and the chances of being with her again were virtually impossible…..

Or so he thought.

**AN: How was it? Man, I sure was extremely nervous while writing out the kissing scene. I might have overdone it, for they are just thirteen and fourteen year old teens. But I know the boundaries, and if anything is good, it's worth overdoing…..or so I think in some cases. Anyways, leave your thoughts in reviews. And I will be answering some reviews from the previous chapter. OH! I almost forgot!**

**Omake:**

Jiraiya considered himself as the biggest pervert in the world, and he was damn proud of the fact. He was also one the legendary Sannin, and perhaps the only remaining sage in the world. He was also a damn good teacher, judging from the notable students he had taught.

The three war orphans from the village hidden in rain; they must have changed their village by now, for the good. Then there was the Yondaime Hokage. The man was in a league all of his own, and Jiraiya couldn't have been prouder of the shinobi that his student had become. But alas, he died too early, even by shinobi standard. Then there was his latest student.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Jiraiya had seen many young prodigies in his life. Hell, Konoha had no shortage of them. Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Itachi, Namikaze Minato, Hatake Kakashi, his own teammate Orochimaru. But he had never seen one like Naruto .

The boy was unbelievably skilled and powerful for someone of his age. He had impressive chakra reserves, excellent chakra control, intelligence to rival his father…all the makings of a prodigy. So Jiraiya promised himself that he would make Naruto a greater shinobi than even his father. But there was one thing that Jiraiya had failed to pass on to all his students.

The art of perversion.

Jiraiya had been a pervert since his genin days, and had never given up the habit. When he had taken on Minato as an apprentice, Jiraiya had believed that he had finally found the perfect student to pass his perversion onto. Minato certainly had the looks for it, unlike Jiraiya, and he already had loads of fangirls after him just for that. So it killed Jiraiya on the inside when his student acted all polite and modest and refused to take advantage of it. No matter how much he tried to persuade Minato, the guy had an unshakable will and was already fixated on that petite redhead of his. Not that Jiraiya had any problems with it, in fact he thought that Minato had landed an excellent catch. It's just that he couldn't get _any _research material out of that couple, no matter how hard he tried.

It was with these sullen thoughts that Jiraiya wandered around the village, not even noticing how people were whispering with awe that the famed Toad sage was walking among them right now. So into his thoughts he was that when he actually looked around him, he found himself walking in a fairly empty Konoha street. Very few people were in the street, and they weren't even wandering, instead just gossiping on doorsteps.

Jiraiya sighed, hopping onto a roof as he surveyed the village. His thoughts shifted to his meeting with his sensei from last night. Naruto had just saved one of their jonin from being killed by the jonin sensei of the Suna team. Sensei had instructed him to remain in the village for the time being, since he was convinced that they would be attacked on the day of the finals. That caused his thoughts to shift on to Naruto.

A small smile came onto his face. He had no doubt that the kid would thrash the Hyuga in his match, but immediately getting in the middle of an invasion right after his fight? Jiraiya could not say or think anything for certain.

A movement was caught in his peripheral vision, causing him to turn to left. His eyes widened with glee upon seeing the sight, and it was all he could do from hooting and shouting in joy.

There was his student, in an alleyway across from him, locking lips with the pretty, blonde genin from Suna. Not just any genin, Jiraiya thought, because he was pretty sure that she was the daughter of the Kazekage. Naruto, the son of the Yondaime Hokage, was kissing Sabaku no Temari, the daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage. He didn't know whether it was fate or not, but he could care less about it. He wasted no time in whipping out his research notebook, hastily writing into it.

'_Kinky,' _he giggled quietly, to not alert them of his presence, with a lecherous look on his face after he saw their positions. Naruto had Temari's arms pinned over her head, and both of his legs were in between the female blonde's legs. _'Oh ho hoooo! This is GOOD! Go my student, Go!' _he mentally cheered his student on.

His joy at finding his student making out in an alleyway increased even further when Naruto released her hands and wrapped them around Temari's waist, pulling her flush against him. Temari wrapped her own arms around his neck, deepening the kiss further. _'This is the ultimate jackpot! He is all over her! And it's not just a simple kiss. They are eating each other's mouths! He might be my best student yet, and I haven't even begun teaching him about __**that**__!' _Jiraiya kept his giggled to himself as he gleefully wrote down god-knows-what in his notebook, not taking his eyes off the couple for a second.

He almost yelled broke his cover when he yelled in joy when he saw Naruto grabbing Temari's butt, earning a pleased moan from her. That did it for him. He kept his notebook aside and just watched them with great pleasure. He knew he would remember this for_ever. 'He is getting bold, that's for sure. He is doing it as if he has previous experience, but sensei didn't mention any previous relationships. But judging from her moans, she seems to have no problem with him doing that. I'll just jot this this down later; right now, I will see to the end of this!' _A trickle of blood fell from his nose as he continued watching them without any shame.

He almost resorted to dancing on that rooftop when Naruto picked Temari up, her legs going on either side of him and locking behind his back as the kiss intensified even more. _'He is really, REALLY GOOD! I haven't seen something as good as this in years! Oh, my next book will be breaking records!' _He kept watching, nodding in equal parts of appreciation and glee as Naruto squeezed her butt, earning pleasurable moans, back to back. _'At this rate, he might even get his cherry popped tonight!'_

He was almost disappointed when the steamy make out session came to an end, but that feeling was overridden by the immense pride and satisfaction he was feeling for his godson for landing such a girl for himself. He frowned however, when they seemed to separate with solemn faces. Temari left, but not before shedding a tear at something Naruto said. Naruto didn't make her cry, that he was sure of, because the boy had the same feeling of sadness around him as the girl.

'_It must have been something serious for them to get like that after a session such as that,' _he thought. No one should look that sad after a hot make out such as that. Jiraiya knew he wouldn't, for he would jump at the chance. But perhaps his reasoning was flawed, for he hadn't had his first kiss in all fifty years of his life.

Oh well, time to cheer, or maybe embarrass, his godson by letting him know of his audience. He finally let the giggle he had been holding in for so long loose. Naruto didn't disappoint him.

His keen sense of hearing immediately picked up the giggles that he knew were aimed at him. Jiraiya was laughing on the inside when Naruto's face changed to that of horror. The amusement must have shown through his eyes, for Naruto's face instantly went red in embarrassment and anger. Mainly embarrassment though.

"ERO-SENNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!" He leapt towards Jiraiya like a tiger. But his mind must still be addled by pleasure, for Jiraiya dodged like he wasn't even trying.

Jiraiya laughed as he prepared to flicker away. "Thanks for the research material, brat!" He was gone after that.

Naruto fumed as he spread out his senses and easily locked ontoJiraiya. He couldn't believe that his first kiss- **more like a make out session**, Kurama so _helpfully_ reminded him- was witnessed by Jiraiya. What was worse was that the man had made research material out of it for his porn books. _Like hell he was going to let that happen!_

Things like that, no matter how awesome and pleasurable, were supposed to remain private!

**AN: Man, I had a blast writing Jiraiya's thoughts as the perverted godfather of Naruto! While reading some stories, I realize that a particular part could have been played in another way, but it is not to be in many cases. I'm sure there are some of you out there who were trying to imagine how the scene would have played out if Jiraiya were to witness this. So the Omake is for you guys! Anyways, onto the answers.**

**Namittheking: The reason you might have felt that way was probably because of this. Naruto did not make the use of Hiraishin, along with several other tricks in his arsenal because he did not want Orochimaru divert his attention onto him. He wanted Orochimaru to underestimate him. Also, the reason that Jiraiya might have seemed weaker was that Jiraiya faced the full scope of Naruto's abilities unlike Orochimaru, who Naruto was actively trying to hold back against. Hope this satisfies your query.**

**NarutoManiac2400: If toads can grow that big, then you can safely imagine that Takeshi is tall enough that Gamabunta only reaches his shoulder or neckline.**

**Allthegoodnameswheretaken: No, I still need the Rasengan for Tsunade retrieval, so no. I can assure you though, that I will try to make it as interesting as I can.**

**Hawk2010: While I was coming up with how to introduce the fox contract, the idea did pop into my head. As you might have read in the AN in the beginning of the chapter, I have some pretty badass, possibly op, concepts for the fox sage mode. But I am still contemplating on whether I should do Shippuden or not. I would like to see part 1 to its end first.**

**That is all for this chapter. Another small thing I would like to address regarding any doubts anyone might have about my story. If you have a specific question you need me to address (regarding the story or the characters), put a # in your review. Note that post the question only if you can't find an answer on the sources of web, otherwise it becomes a bit unnecessary, if you get what I mean. Laters, and try to hold your curiosity for two weeks without any updates! All the best!**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 17

**AN: WHOOO! I finally reached a thousand favorites and followers! Man, this is like the best thing ever happened! Time to address some issues. First, I finally have figured out a way for Hiruzen to live, though you might have to wait one or two chapters to see how. Second, the reason why I won't have Naruto place the five elements seal on Gaara is that I want him to use his summons in battle at least once in part 1. The battle with Gaara is the only time when the summons are actually useful, and I'm not counting the fillers. Also, I will hammer Kakashi to the best of my ability. I also have changed the finals a bit, so read on to find out. This chapter will be the reveal I have been mentioning occasionally. Enjoy your reward for a wait of two weeks!**

**P.S: I will occasionally write Omakes, so if any of you wants a particular scene edited, write in your reviews. I'll consider it. **

Naruto flashed straight to his parent's home. He needed something to calm down, something to focus on. His mind was in a haze, with all his rational thoughts and logic buried beneath a storm of emotions he could make no sense out of. This was the first time he was feeling something like this, and his gut instinct was understandably confused. Fortunately, he had Kurama to talk some sense into him.

'**Naruto! Calm down! Take it slowly, step by step.' **He rumbled in a calm manner, trying to work the panic out of Naruto's system by pushing some of his yang chakra through. He could feel Naruto trying to think this through logically, as he had done with every situation before.

Naruto registered Kurama's shouts and upon hearing the annoyance in his voice, he forcefully shook his head. He took deep breaths, letting each one out slowly. It took him over five minutes to calm down enough so he could listen to Kurama. He slowly sat down in the living room sofa, right in front of his parent's portrait. He put his chin on top of his joint hands and listened.

'_Alright, I'm calm now…..Sorry about that. I just didn't know what to do,' _he said in a neutral tone, with only a hint of confusion in it.

Kurama scoffed, **'As you should be! I really don't see what's there to panic about. You should be jumping in ecstasy instead, having finally had your first kiss with a girl.'**

Naruto frowned a bit, _'….Maybe you're right. However, even if I kissed her, she is going to be my enemy on the day of the finals! I don't know what I would do! As a shinobi of the leaf, it is my sworn duty to destroy the enemies of the leaf. However, I __**know **__that I won't be able to bring myself to kill Temari. And I can't even imagine the treatment a prisoner of Konoha gets.'_

Kurama raised an eyebrow, **'What you need to do, is slow down. It is not up to you to decide what happens to them. That's the job of the Hokage. Your job is to simply stop them from completing their mission, by any means necessary.'**

Naruto thought about it, weighing Kurama's words intensely. He was right; he simply had to stop the Sand from achieving their goal. He figured that he might have to take some lives on the day of the finals, but he could choose to spare some.

He got up, his keen mind slowly working out the various possibilities and scenarios as he made his way to the simulation. He already knew that Gaara was the biggest part of the opposition's plan, so he would have to neutralize him by any means. If he could stop Gaara, there is no other trump card that he could think of that Suna can fall back on. He could choose to spare Temari, as she can't do anything on her own. Her other brother was easy to handle as well. Based on his observations, Kankuro was a skilled puppeteer, but he was also a bit of an idiot. Both were a very small part of the entire invasion, the pawns on the chessboard.

He removed his resistance seals and set the simulation to level six. He stepped inside the room and activated the simulation with the seal sequence. As his opponent formed in front of him, he settled into his stance, eyes steely. As soon as the command was given, he dashed forward in a flash step.

'_I __**will **__figure out what to do!'_

XXXXXXX

The fight was tough, easily the toughest that Naruto had ever fought. The bruises and sore muscles were the definite proof of that. He winced as he rolled his shoulder, trying to relax it a bit as he exited the room.

He had given it his utmost effort from the beginning, trying to end it as quickly as possible. However, he wasn't surprised at all when he was parried blow for blow, jab for jab. Neither managed to gain the upper hand on the other for a whole of fifteen minutes. Naruto could not hit his opponent, but he made sure that his opponent couldn't hit him either. It soon became clear that he won't be able to gain the upper hand if he continued like this, so he activated the Blazing hands technique. At first, it looked like he had gained a slight advantage, but he was forced onto the defensive when his opponent _copied _the Blazing hands and used it against him just as effectively.

Naruto absently fingered the small, burnt hole in his jacket as he walked up the basement. The blazing hands had caught him off guard for a moment, which is why there was a burnt hole. But he had managed to put up a successful defense, all the while trying to think up of something that would give him an edge in the fight. The fact that there was no pattern to identify did not help at all. It all came down to this: the only way he was beating this opponent was by catching him off guard, and capitalizing on that hard and fast, give the opponent no time to recover or think up of a strategy. However, it had to be something completely new. Something totally out of the box.

It did not escape his observation that the moves he fought in the previous level did not work on the next.

So he waited, all the while defending himself from his opponent. It took him the better part of twenty minutes to think up of something that even remotely had a chance of working. Blazing hands was somewhat based on the tree walking exercise. You have to maintain a constant amount of chakra on your hands or feet, however, instead of it being normal chakra, it has to be Katon.

Katon was fire, and fire was weak to water, and vice versa.

With this in mind, Naruto improvised. Instead of maintaining Katon chakra, he changed the nature to Suiton. It wasn't difficult at all, if he didn't count the constant attacking on his person. it was no surprise that the Blazing hands technique of his opponent was neutralized. But water nature chakra had no offensive capability in taijutsu. But his goal was something else entirely.

He maintained the change for only ten seconds, after which he switched back to Katon. He smirked when he saw his attacks getting neutralized, the same way he neutralized them. His opponent was using Suiton to counter his Blazing hands.

This was the chance he was waiting for.

Without a moment of waste, he had flipped away and charged back. He used the potential of his danger sense to the maximum, slowing down his perception, waiting for the exact moment to strike. When his punch towards the stomach was predictably blocked by a fist, he struck.

Red lightning danced across the body of his opponent, sending his electrical impulses into overdrive and spasming his muscles. Naruto had gathered a small amount of his Raiton chakra in his punch. And since the opponent was using Suiton to counter Blazing hands, the water only boosted the effect of electricity on his body. Naruto seized his chance; he would have to finish this in one move, otherwise he risked giving his opponent a chance to adapt.

He back flipped, enforcing his right heel with chakra to amplify the damage. His opponent went flying in the air, and Naruto smirked when he heard the telltale sound of a bone cracking. But he didn't stop his movements. He jumped a bit and spun counter-clockwise, timing his jump such that his left foot made a painful contact with the opponent's gut, sending him flying back. His back struck the wall hard, his head bumping back as well due to momentum. But Naruto was already flash stepping forward as soon as his kick had ended. He had gathered a large amount of lightning in his fist, making tiny sparks go off in random directions. He struck his fist right in the chest where the heart is.

It went right through it, emerging on the other side. The Raiton chakra burned away any blood that would have gathered on the fist, if it were a real opponent. As it wasn't, the simulation ended, signifying his victory. The sheer amount of lightning in his hand had given him a high amount of piercing power. The power to cut through almost anything.

Naruto did not know, but he had unintentionally recreated something similar to the Chidori, the technique that Kakashi was infamous for.

'_No wonder he didn't get back up,' _he thought as he prepared to flash away. The simulation had ended after that. His purpose was achieved; he had managed to distract himself from the whirlpool of panic he was going through. Now that his mind was focused enough, he could logically think this through on what he would do on the day of the invasion.

And he had decided what he would do.

For now, he needed to rest. He had an invasion to prepare for.

XXXXXXX

Naruto was sleeping comfortably, a peaceful smile on his face. The sun peeked over the horizon slowly, and as soon as the first rays of the sun touched his face, his eyes fluttered open. He blinked his eyes several times to clear the sleep out of them. He then put his hands behind his head and just stared at the ceiling, attempting to piece together the facts he knew.

'_Okay, here are the facts. Orochimaru attacked us in the second phase, making it clear that he is after Sasuke for some reason. From what I learnt from Temari, the Sand and the Sound are planning a combined invasion on the leaf on the day of the finals. So it's not just that the Sand and the Sound shinobi will be fighting each other, but the Kage will fight as well. Jiji is up against the Kazekage, and possibly Orochimaru as well. That snake just want to see the leaf destroyed, given that he was denied the title of the Yondaime by jiji. The fact that jiji only cemented the fact that he would never become Hokage by declaring him a missing nin is only the icing on the cake. He wants to see the leaf utterly destroyed,' _Naruto frowned heavily at his thoughts.

The leaf was in a very bad situation.

He knew that jiji must have organized his forces accordingly upon learning of the invasion two days ago, so he only needed to worry about himself. It was finally time to cut loose. He was ready to show the world who he really is._'Though it will be amusing to see whether the world is ready to know who I really am,' _Naruto smirked.

He completed his morning rituals and was waiting for his clone to finish making breakfast. Today he would be resting entirely, so he could fight in peak condition tomorrow. Which means he had ample amount of time to come up with a plan on how to deal with Gaara. He doubted it was simple enough to get close to Gaara to apply the Five elements seal, for his absolute defense was nothing to laugh at.

The clone was grumbling about slave-drivers when he served breakfast to Naruto. Naruto proceeded to dispel the clone while he ate the pancakes. He began thinking of ways to beat Gaara as he slowly ate his breakfast.

Taijutsu was out of the question, if what Gaara did to Lee was anything to go by. Genjutsu was a useless option to use against a jinchuriki, for the beast inside them would release the illusion for them. That left ninjutsu and fuinjutsu.

Gaara primarily used sand, which was a glaring weakness for Naruto to exploit. Naruto knew how well Gaara could control his sand, but he doubted he could control it well enough when it got soaked in water. Wet sand was heavy. Fire was only good to use if it was hot enough to turn the sand to glass. He could use lightning, but he preferred if it didn't come to that. He would douse Gaara in so much water he would be hard pressed to find enough sand that he could control.

Fuinjutsu was something he could use to a great effect. A chakra absorption barrier would effectively trap and drain Gaara of his chakra until he dropped unconscious. But that presented another problem. Kurama had told him that the moment Gaara falls asleep, Shukaku would seize control and get free. So he would have to deal with a bijuu. _'Thank god for the fox summons,' _he thought as he washed his plates. He dried them and went back to his room. Gazing in the mirror, he saw his hair and sighed wistfully.

A second later, a clone popped into existence, already knowing what to do. He picked up a blade and scissors, and set about to cutting the original's hair. Tears of regret flowed out from his eyes.

"Why are you cutting your hair, prime? It is such fine hair…"

Naruto turned in confusion, "Why are you complaining?"

The clone scowled, "I know what you want to do with your hair, and I say it's idiotic because we would look like idiots!"

Naruto snorted, "Who says you have an option?"

The clone grumbled as he set to cutting the hair, while Naruto remained on guard, ready to dispel the clone in case he tried to shave him bald. Fifteen minutes later, Naruto gazed at himself in the mirror, smiling as he saw his new hairstyle. He even had his whiskers removed, for patches of hair, with a pattern that he had, hardly looked good on anyone.

He had cut his ponytail, causing his hair to fall around and making two jaw length, spiky ear tails on either sides of his head. He experimentally lifted his right hand and spiked his head forwards. He smiled when the hair seemed to actually spike forwards and stay like that.

'_People are going to get a heart attack tomorrow,' _he smirked. He went into the bathroom and took a quick shower. _'I have to prepare some back up for jiji, for he may have to face the Kazekage and Orochimaru at the same time,' _he thought as he wiped himself dry.

'**What do you have in mind?'**

The sudden deep baritone caused him to blink once. _'About time you woke up. I was beginning to get worried when you didn't respond to my thinking earlier.'_

Kurama scoffed, **'You're about a ten thousand years too young to worry about me! Anyways, what do you have in mind?'**

Putting on his clothes, he scoffed in return and replied, _'I'm only a genin. I can only prepare a few hundred shadow clones, nothing else.'_

Kurama thought for a few moments and said, **'You know, you underestimate your shadow clones. Don't forget, you are a decently skilled mortal of your age,' **he gracefully ignored the snort from his host, **'And as such, shadow clones of your caliber can act as a great support for anyone.'**

'_If you say so,' _Naruto absently replied as he dressed up as usual. He looked at his hair in the mirror, noting the way in which it formed a spiky mess on his head. He arranged it so it was spiked forward on top of his head. He wondered what to do about his ear tails.

He knew that his father too, had jaw length bangs on either sides of his head. He could replicate that, but he really didn't want his hair sticking around his face if it got wet with water. He could tie the bangs under his headband, but then it would still stick randomly when wet.

'_What to do, what to do, what to do….'_

'**It's quite rare to see someone like you, who never pays attention to irrelevant things, fussing over your hair,' **Kurama slyly commented.

Naruto scowled, _'It's a relevant concern, okay? And when did I ask for your opinion on this anyways?'_

'**You didn't, I was simply stating a fact,' **the reply was swiftly delivered. **'Anyways, I have something that you can try. A bit old style, but you might do some justice to it.'**

Five minutes later, Naruto was looking over his new hairstyle. _'You know Kurama, this actually looks good on me. You do have good advice sometimes!'_

The beast snarled in annoyance, **'You sure have some nerve….making fun of me like that!' **

Naruto smirked but said nothing, further aggravating the bijuu within. He had tied his bangs in the middle with bandages, and then tied his headband over the bangs. **[He has Ashura's hairstyle. Search for Naruto Ashura hairstyle]**

He grabbed two blank scrolls and his sealing supplies. He felt for the marker he had left on the training spot where Jiraiya trained for the last three weeks. He was gone in a flash.

Naruto appeared in the clearing, spreading out his senses and confirming if he was truly alone or not. When he had confirmed, he sat down and opened one of the scrolls. Taking out his brush and ink, he started writing seals for a prisoner containment scroll, with a slight alteration. In just under a minute, he had completed writing down the sealing sequence. He inspected it for any mistakes, then nodded upon finding none. Standing up, he made a half ram.

Around two hundred shadow clones popped into existence. "Alright, I want you divide into two groups of hundred."

"HAI!"

For a second, Naruto feared that the sound of two hundred people simultaneously shouting would draw someone's attention. He sensed for any foreign chakra signatures, but found none. Nonetheless, he had to do this quickly.

It took him just under ten minutes, but he managed to seal one group of clones into the scroll. Normally, a prisoner scroll is made for dead people who have no chakra. Also, it is made only for one person. So Naruto had to tweak the seals a bit so that the amount of chakra that was shaped into his hundred shadow clones did not get disturbed in anyway. Also, he also tweaked the seals to allow solid, hundred constructs to safely get sealed.

He exhaled a breath and did the same with the other hundred. In twenty minutes, he had prepared a backup for himself and jiji. Each back up worth a hundred shadow clones.

'_Alright, my work is done for today. Kurama, will my reserves be back to full by tomorrow?'_

'**Easily. Leave it to me. I might even be able to expand them a bit.'**

Naruto nodded, pleased with the development. All that was left, is to wait for tomorrow.

XXXXXXX

Temari watched as her sensei paced their room in agitation. She glanced over to the other occupants of the room. Kankuro was cleaning his puppets, but kept a wary eye on their sensei, as if unnerved by his recent behavior. Gaara was just simply staring out of the window, arms crossed. No one knew what Gaara was thinking all the time, but it wasn't that hard to guess that he was bloodthirsty. All this time, there had been no one who Gaara had managed to kill, aside from the second phase of the exams. He was getting restless, and that spelled danger for all of them.

Temari thought back to the events of last night and had to vehemently fight off the blush that threatened to cover her entire face in red. That was her first kiss, and it couldn't have been any better. The way they had moved against each other was just mesmerizing. But then the memories of what had happened before their kiss came up, and Temari found it easier to beat back the blush.

She had planned to tell her sensei about her being ambushed, but was dumbfounded when Baki told her that they may have already been discovered. There was a loose end untied. Some Konoha shinobi had been spying on Baki's secret meeting with their ally. Baki had almost managed to finish him off but the shinobi was rescued by someone. Someone so fast that all Baki had managed to see was a blonde blur and a blue flash. Which meant that Temari didn't need to tell him if they had already been discovered.

Baki was getting worried about the next day. The Kazekage had told him that they would be proceeding with the invasion no matter what. So far, the Konoha forces had not shown any signs that they knew about the invasion. But he had a bad feeling in his gut, and his entire shinobi career had told him to always trust his gut.

He had no choice but to ignore it and follow the orders of his leader.

XXXXXXX

Morning arrived sooner than Naruto thought. He got up, thinking about what would happen today. Today, two things were sure to happen. He was not just going to beat Neji, no, that would be too light of a punishment for what he did to Hinata. He would show him just how little fate meant to him.

He was going to utterly humiliate the Hyuga. The chances of him winning were already in his favor with his lack of a chakra network, but he would put effort for Neji. The other thing was the invasion, something that scared Naruto a bit. So many people could die, and those people would not just be the enemies, but his comrades as well. He would do whatever he could to protect his comrades, even if it meant putting himself in the line of fire.

He shook his head, wiping that line of thought immediately. He would fight like a shinobi today; fast, deceptive and ruthless. He already had his plan on how to beat Gaara, whether they crossed paths in the finals, or on the battlefield. Gaara would either lose, or die. He personally preferred if it didn't come to the second choice.

Getting up, he quickly got ready. He checked and double checked his hip pouches and holster, nodding when he saw they were fully stocked with what he needed. He put the backup scrolls in the pouches as well, reminding himself to give one of them to jiji. He tied his headband around his head and tied his hair just like yesterday.

He smirked when he saw he looked almost like a mini-me of his father. Today would be marked as the reveal of the legacy of Yondaime Hokage.

XXXXXXX

The village was in a buzz, looking livelier than usual, many people noted. However, there was reason to be. Today was the day of the chunin finals. People chatted happily as they made their way to the stadium, talking about who would win and who they would place their bets on.

Of course, most of the buzz was about the last Uchiha. Many people were sure that the last Uchiha would no doubt emerge as the winner of the chunin exams. It seemed as if the name of Uchiha automatically distinguished them as the strongest. Of course, people had reason to believe that as the last Uchiha was no other than the younger brother of Uchiha Itachi, the greatest prodigy to come out of the Uchiha clan. So, there was a lot of hope placed on youngest Uchiha to perform well.

Many other people were rooting for the Hyuga genius, Hyuga Neji. The boy was hailed as the prodigy of the Hyuga clan, and there was no doubt as to how powerful the clan was. A prodigy of a powerful clan such as the Hyuga would no doubt be another favorable contender for the title of the winner of the chunin exams.

Naruto smirked as he made his way to the stadium, ensuring he was out of everyone's sight. It was important for him to not be seen by anyone. He wanted his entrance to be one worthy enough for the son of the Yondaime. As he made his way to the stadium, he paid close attention to what the people were saying. Most of them seemed damn sure of Sasuke's victory, while the others were in the favor of the Hyuga. Others were not even mentioned, which suited him just fine. The more he was ignored, more potent would be their guilt.

He wanted the people of Konoha to know just who they were tormenting all this while. As the stadium came in sight, Naruto changed his route to arrive at the back of the stadium. Looking up, he saw the back wall of the stadium looming in front of him.

"There are still over five minutes before the announcements begin," he mused. He sat down to wait, and while he waited, he thought back to what Neji had said during the prelims.

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto watched in horror as Neji stood over the downed form of Hinata, who was twitching in pain. "No one can defy fate, Hinata-sama. Fate deemed you to be weak, that is why you lost to me."_

_**Flashback end**_

Naruto frowned as he thought back to those words. The amount of scorn Neji held for his sister was unreal. He whispered, "Why do you believe in fate so much, Neji? Just what happened to you to believe in bullshit such as that?"

He was shook out of his thoughts when his keen ears picked up an announcement, "All final contestants please get down in the arena!"

Naruto took a deep breath and stood up. This is it, he told himself. Looking up, he saw the the top of the wall was about ten meters above the branch of the tree he was standing on. He made a clone, who charged his legs with chakra and jumped, easily vaulting over the wall.

XXXXXXX

Shikamaru looked as lazy as usual, but he closely observed his opponents. His opponent, the girl from sand, looked every bit confident of her victory. But there was a small hint of apprehension in her eyes, which darted around the arena anxiously. He didn't bother looking at Shino. The guy was as stoic as a stone, and never gave anything away. The glasses and high collar of his jacket only made it difficult to read him. The puppeteer from sand was just like his sister, but unlike her, there was no anxiousness radiating from him. The last guy from sand was the one that bothered Shikamaru the most.

The redhead was dangerous, no doubt about that. Although his expression was stoic, it was betrayed by the sheer amount of bloodlust he could feel from the guy. He still remembered what happened to Lee in the prelims. Gaara had not hesitated one bit to kill him with his sand. He was a seasoned killer, one that Shikamaru doubted anyone wanted to cross. From the minute twitches that he could see, Shikamaru deduced that he was eager to get on with the fighting.

He looked over to Neji, who was Naruto's opponent. Regarded as the rookie of the year of his batch, Neji was a proclaimed genius of the Hyuga, who were known for their deadly and unique Taijutsu. While a formidable opponent, Shikamaru doubted he would win against Naruto. He knew that Naruto was powerful, but he had the feeling that Naruto had yet to show what he was fully capable of. Speaking of…..

He looked around, trying to find his blonde friend. Him and Sasuke, both of them were absent from the lineup, as well as the audience stands. If they didn't come arrive right now…

"Troublesome," he muttered. The proctor, a different one from the prelims, was standing in front of their lineup. A lazy one, from what he could see.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the chunin exam finals. I am Shiranui Genma, the proctor of this stage. The matches will be as follows: Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuga Neji, Uchiha Sasuke vs Sabaku no Gaara, Aburame Shino vs Sabaku no Kankuro and Sabaku no Temari vs Nara Shikamaru."

Turning his attention to the lineup, Genma continued, "The rules are the same as preliminaries, however, whether you win or lose doesn't matter. Your promotion will be decided on the basis of your skill, your strategy and execution."

**Stands**

Sakura looked worried as she tried to spot her two teammates. Ino, who was sitting next to her, said, "Where do you think are your teammates, Sakura?"

While she still believed Sasuke would win the finals, she had gained a healthy amount of respect for the blonde Uzumaki, ever since she suffered the humiliating defeat at his hands. The ease at which he handled her told her how pathetic she really was. Also, it was evident just how much he was holding back from absolutely thrashing her.

Sakura shook her head worryingly, "I don't know…"

'_Where are you, Sasuke-kun, Naruto?'_

A sound coming from above the finalists caught hers, as well as every person's attention.

**Arena**

The proctor was just about to speak some more when a sound above them caused everyone, including the audience and the Kage, to look up. In a puff of smoke, a small object fell right in front of the assembled genin. It was revealed to be a kunai, but not just any kunai.

A three-pronged kunai.

There was a collective gasp among the audience when they recognized what it was. Genma had wide eyes as he stared at the kunai, being reminded of the only person in the entire nations who used to wield these. Before he could think anything else, a person appeared in a blue flash.

A pin drop silence washed over the entire stadium as everyone got a good look at the person.

**Kage box**

Hiruzen stared in awe as the person was revealed to be just who he thought it would be. And Kami, he looked just like his father.

'_Minato, you would be proud of who he's become.'_

Beside him, Orochimaru was seething. His fists were hidden from view, so that no one could see that they were clenched tightly.

'_Uzumaki Naruto….it is not possible for anyone to master __**that **__jutsu in just a month, which means you knew it well before, and you knowingly held back against me? Very bold.'_

But then he smirked, _'If you weren't the jinchuriki of the kyuubi, I would have marked you instead of Sasuke-kun. To have __**that **__jutsu in my arsenal…..I would have been unstoppable.' _

**Stands**

Everyone's eyes were at the point of bulging out when they saw the kunai used by their beloved Yondaime being thrown in the arena. Everyone had gasped collectively, and had jumped up on reflex when the person who had likely thrown the kunai had appeared.

_It couldn't be…..It just couldn't be, _were the thoughts of everyone. They were filled with disbelief, trying to deny what was right in front of their eyes. But no matter how much they wanted to, it was simply undeniable.

Spiky blonde hair, which was no longer tied in a ponytail, but in a style that was painfully reminding them of a similar blonde. Two jaw length spiky bangs, although tied beneath the headband and the bangs themselves tied around the middle, there was no mistaking just who the blonde Uzumaki resembled so much.

He was almost a literal copy of Namikaze Minato, with only his hairstyle distinguishing from the famous Hokage. The Yondaime couldn't return from the dead, which left only one conclusion. To think that the demon container was also the son of the Yondaime…..

The crowd exploded in mutters, exclamations of "Yondaime!" mostly drowning any other verbal exclamation. It was something that _no one _was expecting to see. No one knew that the Yondaime had a legacy, and now that they thought about it, it was right in front of their eyes all the time! Guilt began to creep into every Konoha villager about how they treated the boy, who was almost royalty considering just whose legacy he represented.

"Is that Naruto? He looks so hot!" Ino cried out as she hungrily looked at Naruto. Then she closely looked at Naruto. While he had only changed his hairstyle, he closely resembled a person that was on the tip of her tongue.

Sakura was beside herself as she gazed upon Naruto's new look with a slight blush. _'He looks almost as handsome as Sasuke-kun, if not more…'_

**Arena**

Naruto stood in a crouch, right hand grasping the handle of the kunai and eyes on the front, facing the genin assembled. He took in the expression of each of them. Shikamaru 's narrowed gaze, Shino's raised eyebrows, Kankuro's frown, Temari's appreciative but slightly guarded gaze, Neji's narrowed eyes but otherwise neutral expression. But what put him on guard most was Gaara.

Pulling out the lodged kunai with a slight jerk, he slowly stood up, maintaining eye contact with Gaara. Gaara's mouth almost twisted into a manic smile, but it was so quick that Naruto would have missed it if he were not looking for it. He stood up to his full height, towering full four inches above him. Without breaking eye contact, both of them seemed to size each other up. It was as if along with them, their bijuu were also looking each other through their eyes.

A new feeling washed over the assembled group. It was as if at first, there was an existing sensation of a contest between themselves. Temari and Kankuro knew that Gaara was the strongest among the three of them, and the genin from Konoha knew Neji was the strongest among them. It was a clash between both the groups. But with Naruto's arrival, it seemed that the purpose of the clash went utterly void, for here was a genin whose aura seemed to say that he already knew he was the strongest among them.

The feeling was unsettling.

"Uzumaki," Gaara whispered, though it perfectly conveyed his bloodlust. Naruto did not change his expression, prompting Gaara to continue, "Mother cries for your blood."

Naruto merely lifted an eyebrow and said, "She's going to have to wait." He then proceeded to stand next to Shikamaru, who turned an annoyed expression to him, "You're a troublesome guy, have I ever told you that?"

Naruto smirked but said nothing.

Genma gazed at Naruto for a moment more, before turning his gaze and calling out, "Just to be clear, I'll say it one more time. The same rules apply as last time. Opponents continue to fight until one is either knocked out or unable to continue. I also reserve the right to stop the match when I see fit. With that said, the contestants of the first match will step forward. The others will proceed to the contestant stands to wait for their matches."

Shikamaru patted Naruto on his shoulders and walked off to sit with the rest of the rookies. When the field cleared, it was just Neji, Naruto and Genma, who stood between the two fighters as the two sized each other up.

"You should give up, Uzumaki. Fate has already decreed me to be the winner today," Neji broke the silence, informing Naruto as if what he said was fact, nothing more.

Naruto smirked- both at the squeals from the female audience and what he was about to say- at him and replied, "Your eyes are said to be great, yet they can't even see that fate is not the proctor of this match, Genma-san is."

Neji's eyes hardened, "Everything in life is set by fate, as is your defeat. But I can see you do not understand fate." Slipping into his stance, he continued, "Allow me to explain by demonstrating it to you."

Genma knew an opportunity when he saw it, and he swung his hand down in a slicing motion. "Hajime!"

Immediately jumping back, he made a half ram seal. Eight clones popped into existence. "Go," he commanded. All of them moved in to engage.

Neji did not seemed alarmed at all. He calmly engaged the clones with controlled expertise, slowly but surely, dispatching them. Naruto observed that Neji's eyes never once moved in their sockets, always gazing forward. As the last of the clones was finished off, Neji was surprised a bit that another batch was already moving in to engage. But no matter, they would not win. Fate had decreed him to be the victor of this match.

**Stands**

"What is he doing, using Kage Bunshin against Neji?" Asuma wondered, confused by Naruto's tactics. Alongside him, Kurenai and Gai also were wondering the same thing. "If he knows the Hiraishin, he could have ended the match easily, so why isn't he?"

"With Neji's Byakugan, any type of attack using clones wouldn't work because of his all-around vision," Gai put in his thoughts. "Perhaps there is more to this match than just achieving victory, that we are not seeing."

A few seats away, the head and the heiress of the Hyuga clan watched the match with impassive expressions. Hiashi paid careful attention to the Uzumaki, who was intently studying Neji's fighting style. There was no doubt about it, Naruto was the son of his old friend, the Yondaime. Had he not known that Naruto knew that jutsu that made Namikaze Minato so known, he would have been in favor of Neji's victory. But now, he felt like Naruto was setting Neji up for something.

Like a predator playing with its prey, before finishing it off. He would have told Hanabi about his assurance of Neji's victory, but that was before he realized just who Neji was facing.

He wisely chose to keep quiet.

**Arena**

'_There,' _Naruto mentally exclaimed as Neji finished off the fourth batch of Shadow clones. He waited for Neji to get his breath back as he prepared himself, setting into his stance. He found out all he needed to fight this match on his terms.

Neji finished off the last clone and faced the original, all the while mentally cursing. While it took much longer than he estimated, he was able to finish all of them off. But that wasn't what surprised him. The clones, along with the original, didn't seem to have any chakra network at all!

The Hyuga clan's Taijutsu was largely based on attacking the _tenketsu _in the chakra network, cutting off the flow of chakra where they struck. However, the revelation that Naruto did not have a chakra network almost made his Taijutsu null and void. It was almost like he was fighting blind.

Almost.

Along with learning the locations of the _tenketsu, _the Hyuga also learn the locations of various pressure points. With the option of striking the _tenketsu _out, he only had pressure points to rely on. While not as many as the number of the _tenketsu, _there were enough for him to strike.

He turned to the original, watching him settle into a strange stance. He settled into his, knowing that Uzumaki Naruto had given him yet another reason, along with being the son of the Yondaime, to believe that he was a very dangerous opponent.

"I presume you know that I am not a normal opponent by now," Naruto called out.

Neji narrowed his eyes and deactivated them, "Indeed you are not. But that doesn't matter. Fate has spoken in my favor today, which is why you will lose."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "If you insist on believing so much in fate, then allow me to show just how _fragile _the concept of fate is." With that, he moved.

Almost everyone, including most of the jonin in the stands, was perplexed as one moment Naruto was standing ten feet away, and the next moment a foot was being barely blocked by the Hyuga. Many people thought the it was Hiraishin, however, when Neji was sent skidding back from the force of the kick, they realized that Naruto had moved so fast that the momentum had augmented the force behind the kick, causing Neji to go skidding backwards. But Naruto had only started.

'_Wha-' _Neji had barely begun to think when Naruto attacked again. He was shocked at just how fast and ruthlessly he was forced onto the defensive. As he tried to block the attacks, Neji had thought that Naruto's fighting style was focused more on the strength of the attacks, rather than speed. He was promptly proved when he failed to hide his winces when he felt the force behind each of the attacks. He moved by instinct as he attempted to redirect the force behind Naruto's attacks.

The speed behind his attacks was nothing to scoff at as well. While the strikes had impressive force behind them, they seemed to be augmented by the sheer speed that Naruto was using to strike.

_Son of the Yondaime indeed._

Only years of training in the martial art of his family and developing his instincts allowed him to dodge his attacks. Even then, he was dodging and blocking by instinct only. That wasn't the only problem. His hands were feeling unusually hot.

Neji's thought process resulted in a punch slipping past his guard, right into his left cheek and he found himself flying backwards from the force of it. He prevented from landing on his back by twisting himself mid-air and landing on his feet. His hand came up to tenderly rub the surprisingly, slightly burnt area as he narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out just how was Naruto defying fate.

**Kage box**

Hiruzen was thoroughly impressed when he saw Naruto engaging Neji in Taijutsu. Usually, it was considered suicidal to engage a Hyuga in taijutsu, but it seemed Naruto had no such qualms. Not just that, but his taijutsu was effective enough to put a Hyuga on the defensive. And it seemed he added his own touch to it, if the small burn on Neji's face was anything to go by.

_Most Unpredictable ninja indeed._

He pulled out a notepad, which he had brought to write points on which each genin qualified for the position. He wrote down something and kept it aside.

"Your genin is quite impressive and bold, Hokage-dono. He must be very confident to engage a shinobi of the Hyuga clan in taijutsu," Orochimaru commented, playing his role as the supposed 'Kazekage'.

Hiruzen chuckled, "I'm sure that this is only the beginning, Kazekage-dono. He will surprise us, of that I have no doubt." Mentally though, _'You don't give me the credit I deserve…..Orochimaru. Don't think I don't know that it's you in those robes.'_

**Stands**

The surprise was evident on the faces of the three jonin. Not every day you see a prodigal Hyuga being bested by the supposed dead last, now revealed to be the son of their late Hokage, in taijutsu.

Gai was crying, shouting something about Naruto's youth, with Lee vehemently agreeing with him.

"Kami…..is this really what he is capable of?" Ino whispered in amazement and slight fear. She was suddenly, infinitely grateful that Naruto hadn't gone full force in their spar that day. If he had, she would have really been dead.

"Naruto….." Sakura whispered in awe as she watched her teammate best one of the Hyuga at their own game. It suddenly became clear just how utterly _huge _the gap between their skills was. She couldn't even begin to see his movements, that's how fast he was. The first attack alone would have taken her out of the fight.

A few seats away, Hinata watched with a slight smile as Naruto held his own against her prodigal cousin. "Naruto-kun….."

Kiba on the other hand, was shocked and almost jealous of the speed and skill Naruto was displaying. It made him think back to his own fight with the blonde, and he ruefully smiled at how easily he was beaten.

He had grown up with Naruto, and if there was anything he could say for certain about the blonde, it was that Naruto never gave up. He could say without a doubt that Naruto had trained his ass off to reach where he is now. It sort of inspired him to become the same. After all, if Naruto could do it, why can't he?

**Arena**

Neji hid his wince as he kept his gaze on Naruto, slowly standing up. He evaluated on whatever he had experienced so far. _'There is no doubt that he is physically strong, almost on the same level as Lee. I'm willing to bet that he could withstand the amount of force he dishes in his attacks himself as well. And he is fast, unbelievably so. Nothing else would be expected of the son of the fastest shinobi to ever live, after all. I never knew that it was possible to have such impossibly fast reflexes._

'_His fighting style is lethal, but in a way I have never seen before. Every fighting style has a focal point which it is based on. Gai-sensei's Goken is based on strength, Jyuken is based on precision. But his style seemingly incorporates strength, speed, flexibility and precision! It's as if he can switch to any one of them if one proves proves to be inadequate against one opponent. Not just that, his movements are bizarre. He seems to have mastered the way to perfectly switch from one set of movements to another, without hesitation. His hands also feel as if they are on fire, burning any area of contact.'_

Fully standing up, he took deep breaths to center himself. _'I'll have to avoid his hands…no, pretty much his every blow.'_

"Am I getting to you, with that fragility of your so called fate?" Naruto asked, and no one missed the sarcasm in his voice.

Neji chose to ignore that, and instead asked, "How did you manage to burn my face?"

Naruto rose his eyebrow in a way that strongly reminded Neji of himself; he raised his eyebrows that way when his teammates seemed to suggest an utterly stupid idea. _'So that's how it feels to be on the receiving side of it.' _He felt quite stupid to be honest, and was a bit glad that he had a burn on his cheek, otherwise his blush would have been caught.

"What idiot reveals the secret of his or her technique, baka?" Naruto asked in a bored tone.

**Kage box**

Hiruzen heartily laughed at the question. It was highly amusing when in his youth, his opponents seemed to spare him the thought process of trying to figure out their technique by revealing it on their own. It allowed him to create a counter strategy quite easily. Instead of finishing him off, they seemed to choose to gloat about their techniques. What idiots.

"A very true question! Won't you agree, Kazekage-dono?"

Orochimaru forced out a chuckle, while he couldn't shake off the feeling that the old monkey knew it was him and was openly mocking him. 

"I agree, Hokage-dono." Hiruzen smirked and turned back to watch what was turning out to be a highly entertaining match. So far, Naruto had only shown his superior prowess in taijutsu, and had yet to show something that qualified him for chunin, except for keeping emotions under control.

He had to keep his smirk from widening, for he was reminded of a younger Orochimaru, bragging about the secret behind the techniques he developed himself.

'_What an idiot!'_

**Stands**

Kiba shared the amusement with his Hokage, for he was laughing as well. He never knew Naruto had it in him to mock others. Hinata was trying to hide her giggles behind her hand. It would not do if her father caught her laughing at Naruto calling her cousin an idiot. Sakura and Ino shared no such restraints, and were full out giggling.

The jonin had mixed reactions. Asuma had snorted and had to catch his smoking stick from flying onto the head of the person in front of him. Kurenai was stifling her giggles like her student, not wanting to offend Gai for laughing at his student.

Gai had an entirely different response. Instead of being offended on behalf of his student, tears came from his eyes and he clenched his fist. "WHAT A HIP RESPONSE! NO DOUBT, YOU HAVE PASSED YOUR COOLNESS ONTO YOUR STUDENT, MY ETERNAL RIVAL KAKASHI!"

Needless to say, he entirely ignored insult on Neji, choosing to focus on how "Hip and cool" Naruto's response was.

**Arena**

Neji was barely keeping himself from turning red in embarrassment at all the giggles in the stadium that were aimed at him as a result of Naruto's comeback.

Naruto was entirely amused by the giggles resounding in the stadium, but chose to keep it to himself. No need to embarrass him any further. Time to continue the fight, this time with a bit of misdirection.

Neji was already worn out and trying to reduce the feeling of stupidity in himself, so when Naruto suddenly disappeared from in front of him, he was caught unawares. Naruto grinned as a solid kick connected to Neji's left shoulder, sending him flying away from him for the second time in the fight. He twisted and landed on feet, but was given no time to recover as he engaged the Uzumaki in taijutsu yet again. He activated his Byakugan this time, watching out for Naruto's no doubt, Katon chakra-enhanced hand strikes.

But for some reason, Uzumaki's hands were lacking the chakra that was making them heated. So Neji jumped at the opportunity to block rather than dodge, all the while trying to find an opening. He also deactivated his eyes to conserve chakra. He would endure the punishing force for a short while. Maybe he should taunt him a bit.

"You are not fighting with your chakra coated strikes as you were doing before, Uzumaki." He smirked as he saw Naruto narrowing his eyes, "It seems this is where fate draws the line for you using that technique."

He was shocked however, when Naruto, instead of getting enraged like he wanted, snorted out loud. In a surprising maneuver, Naruto locked himself with Neji, holding him in place. As much as Neji tried, he would only move if he managed to overpower him.

Yeah, not happening.

Neji grunted as he tried to get out of the lock Uzumaki had put him in. But as much as he struggled, he could not move the limbs of the blonde. His face twisted in a snarl, and he locked eyes with Naruto, who had a neutral expression on his face. Whatever he was going to say was thrown out of the window at the blonde's words.

"Only a pansy like you would call misdirection as an act of fate." He saw it, but could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

'_Fuuton: Reppuushou!' _(Wind style: Gale palm)

A clone, who had appeared beside them without any hand seals-which caused a gasp to resonate through the shinobi part of the crowd- had enough compressed air in his hands to cleanly blow Neji away almost twenty meters. Naruto had released him from the lock at the very last second.

While the force was enough to send him flying, it lacked a damaging component. But instead of feeling relief, Neji only felt dread. He had a feeling that Uzumaki had planned something much worse for him. Unlike the previous times, Neji failed to add grace to his landing and as such, rolled toughly onto the ground. Remembering that Uzumaki would not likely give him time to recover, he quickly got up to his feet, just in time to see four shuriken converging on him with deadly accuracy. He jumped to the side to avoid them, but was surprised by the blonde, yet again.

'_So he decided to switch to long distance attacks. This is good for me, for I might be able to use this window to recover a bit.' _But that thought was thrown out of the window in the next moment.

Naruto had predicted in a split second where Neji would land, after he avoided those shuriken. So, he had cleverly threw three kunai, wrapped with explosive tags of his own design, to that spot. Neji grit his teeth as the kunai came closer and closer.

'_It seems I'll have to use __**that**__.'_

Naruto watched as the kunai almost hit Neji. His eyebrows raised in surprise when Neji suddenly _spun_, so fast that he wasn't even visible anymore, and was covered in a dome of his own chakra.

"**Hakkesho Kaiten!" **

Naruto activated his exploding tags just as they reached Neji, and watched with a mix of curiosity and fascination that the dome of chakra spinning around Neji completely protected him from the resulting explosion.

**Stands**

Hanabi turned to her father, "Tou-sama, isn't that-"

"Yes," Hiashi replied instantly. His own eyes were narrowed as he clenched his fists. _'Kaiten is supposed to be the technique of the main house. How does Neji, a member of the branch house, know it so well?'_

**Arena **

Neji stopped spinning, and couldn't really hide the smugness from his voice as he saw the expression on Naruto's face. He could gloat later, right now, he would capitalize on this small window of opportunity. No need to use the Byakugan, for he knew exactly where to strike.

Naruto had immediately created five clones to scope out Neji's new technique and find a weakness, but his opponent's words momentarily gave him a pause.

"You are now in the field of my divination," Neji ominously announced. Not wanting to give Neji the chance of using this technique, two of them shot forward to engage him. But this time, Neji was ready, his hands moving in a blur.

"**Two palms!"** two clones gone.

"**Four palms!"** Another two gone.

"**Eight palms!"** The last one tried to shield himself.

'_Futile effort. Even if you have no tenketsu, the physical damage from the strikes alone will send you down!'_

"**Sixteen palms!"** Naruto grunted as the hands slammed into him with considerable speed.

"**Thirty two palms!"**

"**Sixty-four palms!"**

Naruto skid back as Neji finished his technique, breathing evenly. Because he chose to keep his Byakugan deactivated for the majority of the fight, he had more than enough chakra to keep going on. It was easy to ignore the physical pain when you train with people such as Gai-sensei.

Naruto had blood dripping from his mouth. He went down on one knee, drawing gasps from the crowd. This was the first time he had taken any damage in this fight, and it was enough to send him on one knee. Looking at Neji, he asked in obvious pain, "I assume you were… going for physical damage…if you couldn't find my _tenketsu, _weren't you?"

Neji felt a sense of superiority as he looked down on Naruto. No one remained in fighting condition after getting hit by the Eight trigrams: Sixty four palm technique. "You assume correctly. While you were formidable for some time, this is where this ends, Uzumaki. I told you before; fate has decreed that I will win today."

**Kage box**

Orochimaru smiled under the veil, "A most formidable technique of the Hyuga clan, Hokage-dono. I wonder if this is the end for the young Uzumaki?"

Hiruzen smiled as he wrote something down on the notepad, "Don't worry, Kazekage-dono. Naruto won't go down this easily."

**Stands**

The jonin had confused looks on their faces. "Why did Neji do that? Couldn't he see it?"

Gai was rubbing his chin, "I don't know what Neji was thinking when he did that, but it clearly didn't work the way he might have expected." While the news that Naruto didn't have a chakra network was quite staggering, they wanted to see how Neji would work his way around it.

The genin on the other hand, were different parts worried and resigned. Kiba, Hinata, Sakura and Ino wore worried looks as they looked at Naruto.

"Naruto-kun…." Hinata whispered in worry, knowing just how formidable the technique that Neji had used was. Even if Neji didn't have _tenketsu _to strike, the muscles that were struck would suffer considerable damage.

"What a technique," Ino whispered in awe as she looked at the kneeling form of Naruto. Naruto had completely dominated the fight from the beginning, but Neji had seemingly turned the tables with just one move.

'_Get up, Naruto!' _Sakura was chanting in her mind, restraining from saying it out loud.

Tenten on the other hand, just shook her head as if she already knew this was going to happen. _'While you were good Naruto, there is no way you can recover from this.'_

**Arena**

Naruto, despite being in pain, chuckled. Neji rose an eyebrow, "What's so funny?"

'Naruto' looked up with mirth swimming in his eyes, "And _I _told _you, _fate is very fragile." And he burst into smoke.

Cheers erupted from the crowd as it was revealed that the Uzumaki had pulled a fast one on everyone, including Neji. The said genin cursed as he activated his Byakugan and looked around. He almost gasped when he found out where Naruto was, but wasn't able to react in time.

Naruto burst from the ground behind him, a predatory grin on his face and body already in motion. Neji was able to angle his body so that his left shoulder took the hit instead of his head. But he winced as the already abused shoulder took another hit, and he was sent toppling away.

Naruto brushed off some of the dirt as Neji let out a small groan of pain and frustration, standing up. "Most people don't think to look down at the last second. Am I right?"

Neji said nothing as he gazed scornfully at the smirking blonde.

"You made the mistake of deactivating your eyes. If you hadn't, you might have noticed that I substituted with my clone at the last second. Your mistake also allowed me to hide without worry under the ground. Pretty good for misdirection and deception, don't you think?"

Neji grit his teeth, "Even if you had substituted with your clone, a shadow clone gets dispelled after one hit."

Naruto made a sound of mock realization, "Ohhhhhhh, that….I reinforced it with chakra. It's really not that difficult."

He then smirked in a way that sent shivers down Neji's spine. "I've somewhat heard about your defensive technique. The ultimate defense of the Hyuga, isn't it?"

Neji said nothing, which was more than enough for an answer.

Holding up four shuriken, he challenged, "Let's test that so called _ultimate defense, _shall we?"

**Kage box**

"Your genin is very ingenious, Hokage-dono."

Hiruzen nodded, pride coursing through him at how well Naruto was handling himself. So far, Naruto had demonstrated skills that were already above the qualification level of chunin. He wondered just how Naruto planned to break the ultimate defense of the Hyuga clan.

**Stands**

Kiba, Ino and Sakura had shouted in glee when 'Naruto' had popped, the real Naruto kicking Neji away. Hinata had quietly cheered for Naruto, while Tenten was in a state of disbelief. While even Lee couldn't get up after Neji's technique, it was a whole another thing to avoid it successfully altogether.

**Arena**

The shuriken whizzed towards Neji, who jumped to the side to avoid them, opting to conserve chakra. He was stupefied, however, when he spotted a giant ball of fire making its way towards him, fast. Having no time to jump again, he was forced to resort to his defense.

"**Kaiten!"**

Neji reached his maximum rotation speed just as the fireball reached him. The fireball crashed into the spinning dome of chakra, taking only five seconds to disperse, which was four seconds too late for Neji.

It was hard to accurately keep track of your surroundings when you are spinning at a really high speed. So one moment Neji was inside the dome, the other moment Naruto was inside with him…..wait, _what?!_

This time, Neji didn't even have time to be fully surprised as he was punched in the face, _hard. _The sudden application of an external force disrupted the Kaiten, and Neji was bodily thrown _through the fireball._

'_I'm really getting tired of being thrown like that,' _Neji lamented as he stood up once again, a bit burnt from going through the fireball.

**Stands**

Asuma and Kurenai were gawking at the way Naruto broke the defensive technique. One moment he was standing outside the dome, the other moment they all saw him disappearing and appearing instantly inside the dome in a blue flash.

"Hiraishin," Gai whispered in awe. Even he had not found a way yet to break that defensive technique. But if the Hiraishin could surpass defenses with such amount of ease…

It really was a terrifying technique. No wonder the Yondaime was so feared.

**Kage box**

"I really have no more words to describe how impressive that genin of yours is Hokage-dono. To learn and master the Yondaime's most feared technique at such a young age is no small feat," Kazekage complimented.

Hiruzen smirked and nodded. That was a masterful use of the Hiraishin. Naruto must have marked Neji at the very first opportunity.

"Also, to be capable of using two elemental natures is very impressive," Orochimaru complimented.

Hiruzen accepted the compliment on behalf of Naruto with a nod and a smirk.

**Arena**

Neji breathed heavily as he gazed at Naruto. He was down to just a quarter of his chakra reserves, while Naruto had yet to show any signs of fatigue. What he didn't know that Naruto's chakra reserves were so much larger that he had only used a small drop of the entirety yet.

"How…did you…."

"How did I break your defense?" Naruto helpfully finished it for him. When he saw him nod, he sighed. "While I did say before that only idiots reveal their technique, it's no big secret as to the way I appeared inside with you."

Reaching behind him, he pulled out his Hiraishin kunai, dangling it in his index finger. "I'm sure you know what this is." He looked around, discreetly seeing that he had captured the attention of the entire audience, "This is a kunai that was once used by my father, Namikaze Minato."

Mutters rose in the crowd in response to the confirmation of their thoughts from before, but quickly silenced when Naruto continued, "The Hiraishin no jutsu is a space-time technique, a combination of ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. Basically, this formula here," he showed him his imprinted formula, "Acts as a beacon for me. Wherever this formula is, I can teleport there without any problem. That means, the reason I was able to get in there is because you already have a mark on you."

Neji had never widened his eyes this much in his entire life. He desperately searched for the place where Naruto had placed his formula, and found it beneath his forearm. Never before, had he been so outclassed in a fight. How had he failed to notice such a simple thing?

Naruto spun the kunai, catching it in a reverse hold. The look on his face was almost as if set in stone. It was the same look the yellow flash gave to his enemies before killing them, "I could have ended the fight the moment we engaged in taijutsu. In another scenario, if you would have been by enemy and not a comrade, you were dead the moment I put this mark on you."

Silence rang in the entire statement as the cold truth of the words hit each person. It was only now that they realized just how truly dangerous and lethal the Yondaime's use of this jutsu was. It was basically as if you were marked by death. If you had this mark, there was no escape for you.

"Then why didn't you?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, and put the kunai back in his pouch. "Tell me something Neji. Why do you believe in fate so much? What gives you the excuse to claim that everything is fated to be?"

Neji looked surprised for a moment, but then his eyes hardened. He reached for his head band and removed it. "Because of this," he said, pointing to a green seal on his forehead. It was a cross in the middle, with hooks on either side of the cross.

"The bird cage seal is given to the branch house members of the Hyuga clan by the main house members. While it may seem the both the houses are family, it is a lie. The cold reality is that the branch house members only act as servants to the main house," he explained.

Naruto didn't attack him when Neji closed his eyes, instead opting to hear his story out. "The seal is given to the branch house members to protect our prized bloodline from falling into our enemies' hands. After the death of a house member, the seal activates and seals the abilities of Byakugan. By that, I mean this seal binds us until death. A destiny from which we cannot escape."

Neji told him about the Hyuga incident which happened eight years ago. How Hinata was almost kidnapped by the ambassador from Kumogakure no sato. How the village had demanded the death of Hiashi Hyuga as compensation, how his father was offered instead.

Till the end of the explanation, Naruto did not allow one speck of emotion to show on his face. When Neji was finished, then Naruto spoke.

"You speak that it is fate that the branch family will always remain bound, yet you contradicted your own belief when you tried to kill Hinata in the prelims. You tried to divert from your predestined path. All of this, because you hold a grudge against the main family?"

Neji finally lost control of himself, "My father was taken away from me because Hiashi-sama couldn't take the responsibility for his actions! My father had to give his own life, just so Hiashi-sama could keep on living!"

Naruto said nothing for a while. Neji thought he had got through the blonde, but was shell-shocked when he heard Naruto's next words. "I already planned on winning today, but I'll say it just for you. I won't be losing to a coward who's always blaming all of his problems on some nonsense such as fate!"

"Someone as ignorant as you is in no position to lecture me," Neji shot back. "You can never understand what it's like to be burdened with a symbol you can never be rid of!"

There was a pin drop silence in the whole stadium. The whole audience felt the impact of the words. Neji couldn't have been more wrong. The senior shinobi feared Naruto would lose it, even the Hokage. But thankfully, Naruto kept a tight lid on his emotions. It wouldn't do losing it in the center of a crowd.

Naruto sighed wistfully, whispering, "You're wrong. I know exactly how it feels…But enough talk!" He finished in a strong voice. He made a ram seal, and Neji felt that it was better to be cautious rather than just wait and see what happens.

Immediately, he jumped back…or tried to anyway. It wasn't as if he was paralyzed, but it felt like his body was stuck in mud. Just as you have to struggle to move your limbs when drowned in water or mud, Neji had to struggle to just move his arms. It was as if he was stuck in clay. "What the hell is this?!"

Naruto was calmly walking forward, now that he had successfully activated his seal. "Resistance seals. While normally used for training, it's somewhat unusual to apply it in combat. You are currently experiencing a level three resistance. Fuinjutsu is perhaps the most versatile of the shinobi arts, won't you agree?"

**Kage box**

"Your genin is just full of surprises, Hokage-dono. To make use of seals so efficiently in combat, with just his chakra….it's almost as if he is already an expert. Not many choose to study that particular art."

Hiruzen chuckled and replied, "Naruto is more than just skilled in fuinjutsu. He is perhaps the most skilled person I have ever seen. Not surprising, if you consider just who his father was."

The other 'kage' nodded in approval, "He definitely qualifies for chunin. To think he had managed to put a Hiraishin _and _a resistance seal on his opponent. He had been several steps ahead of his opponent right from the beginning of the match."

Hiruzen absently nodded, choosing to focus on the match. Taijutsu, ninjutsu, fuinjutsu…..

**Stands**

"I didn't know Naruto knew fuinjutsu like that!" Ino exclaimed.

Sakura smiled, proud of having a teammate like Naruto, "Naruto is an expert in them, you know."

Kiba hollered, "YOSH! GO, NARUTO!"

Tenten was dumbstruck just how many steps Naruto had been ahead of her teammate.

The jonin were beside themselves. Asuma was rubbing his head, "You know, he really is quite well versed in sealing for his age. Not many people can apply seals with their chakra just like that."

Kurenai nodded, and both of them tried to block out Gai's shouting of how youthfully Naruto was displaying his skills.

**Arena**

Neji stood rooted to his place, and to his horror, Naruto came running towards him, with him being unable to do anything about it. He received a painful punch on his right cheek, and the force behind it was enough to send him stumbling to his left. It hurt, considering he was experiencing resistance in his movements.

Naruto was suddenly in front of him, punching at the same spot again. Only this time, it hurt a lot more than before. The result was the same, Neji went stumbling to his left. Finishing it off, Naruto 540-kicked the side of his head with such force, that Neji could have sworn he saw stars in front of his eyes. He was sent onto the ground, and this time, there was no getting back up. You might think that it was because of the resistance seal, but no.

He had taken way too many hits, and his body had finally given up. Neji could do nothing but glare at Naruto as he crouched in front of him.

"I told you," Naruto stated softly. "Fate is a fragile concept. Our destiny is never set in stone, Neji. I am not strong because I was fated to be. I chose to work hard to reach where I am now. Hinata calls you Neji nii-san, doesn't she? You really should stop treating her like the way you do. She only wants to unite the branch family with the main family. She looks up to you as her big brother, it is only fitting you treat her like your sister. It's time you stepped up and stopped using fate as an excuse."

He then removed the resistance seal from Neji. He stood up and started walking away, letting the medics carry the injured Hyuga away. He smiled as he heard a soft "Maybe you're right." Perhaps there was some hope, after all.

Genma declared loudly, "The winner is, Uzumaki Naruto!"

The entire stadium burst into a tremendous applause. Everyone was clapping as hard as they could, even going so far as to stand and start chanting, "NAMIKAZE! NAMIKAZE! NAMIKAZE!"

The chant resonated around in the entire stadium and within seconds, the entire stadium was chanting it as well. Naruto, for his part, smiled softly. The sight of everyone cheering for him, even if it was a name that he really didn't use, brought a lump to his throat.

He was finally acknowledged by everyone.

Bowing to the crowd, he turned away and headed to the genin stands. He received many good-natured pats on the back, and shook almost everyone's hands on the way. The words "Great job!" and "Congratulations!" rang frequently in his ears. He just accepted them all with a smile and continued on his way.

When he reached the stands, he took in the reactions. First there was Temari.

She was gazing at him with a small smile, and nodded at him, mouthing "Good match". Despite what had occurred between them two nights ago, they could respect each other as competitors. He nodded back in acknowledgement.

As he walked by her, her brother was next. He just scoffed and turned away, but Naruto could spot small beads of sweat. Smirking, he continued.

Gaara was staring at him, arms crossed. His expression gave nothing away, but his body twitched every now and then. Naruto spotted the cork on his gourd shaking, as if the sand was struggling to come out of it.

He didn't wait to see if it would actually come out. Shino gave him a nod of respect, acknowledging his strength. "Good job, Naruto."

Naruto nodded back, "Thanks."

Naruto didn't need to guess the response of Shikamaru. "Troublesome," the shadow user sighed, further slouching, if possible. "You just had to go and cause a ruckus, didn't you?"

Naruto snorted. It was true, the crowd was still chanting his name. He shrugged in mock modesty, "What can I say, I'm just that charismatic and awesome."

"Would Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Gaara please come down?"

**Kage box**

"A splendid display of skills, I say. Don't you agree, Kazekage-dono?"

"Indeed, Hokage-dono. I really didn't expect this match to be this entertaining."

Hiruzen smiled as he gazed at the blonde genin, soon to be chunin. _'Well done Naruto. You performed better than expected. Though you could have ended the match far more quickly, you chose to amend Neji's ways by proving him wrong. You just might have gained a friend and a trusted comrade in him.'_

He then frowned. _'It seems Naruto's teammate, Sasuke-kun still hasn't arrived. And I can't spot Kakashi among the jonin as well,' _he thought, looking at where the jonin senseis were standing.

He shook his head slightly in disappointment. _'Kakashi, your habits just cost your genin his chance at promotion.'_

He motioned the jonin that was standing as his guard, "Inform the proctor that Uchiha Sasuke is disqualified due to his lateness."

Orochimaru frowned beneath the veil. He didn't want the Uchiha to be disqualified as he wanted to see how much Sasuke had improved. "Hokage-dono, can we not give him five more minutes to arrive? I am eager to see my son test his skills against the last Uchiha."

Hiruzen kept his face carefully neutral. He knew exactly why the 'Kazekage' wanted to see the last Uchiha in action. "Apologies Kazekage-dono, but I cannot allow any favoritism towards my shinobi, last Uchiha or not. Following the orders of a superior is an important part of being a chunin. By not showing up on time, Uchiha Sasuke is showing insubordination. I cannot, in good conscience, allow such a genin such as that to progress to chunin. He may try again in the next exams after six months."

Orochimaru frowned. That won't do. "Then perhaps a compromise is in order? It would be rather disappointing if he did not fight today as many of the visiting nobility came here specifically to see the Uchiha fight. How about disqualifying him and denying him the chance of promotion, but allow him to fight in an exhibition match at the end of the tournament against the winner. That would allow the crowd to see the Uchiha fight, but still punish him for insubordination."

Hiruzen thought it over a bit. If he disqualified Sasuke, Gaara would be declared the winner. According to the match ups, Gaara would then fight the winner of the first match, which was Naruto. While he was a bit worried about letting Naruto fight such a dangerous opponent, he had confidence that Naruto would be safe.

Nodding, he said, "That is an acceptable arrangement, Kazekage-dono."

**Stands**

Ino was gaping at the piece of news that was revealed to the whole of Konoha and people from beyond. To think that Naruto, the dead last of their batch and the foremost prankster of Konoha would turn out to be the son of the man Konoha almost worshipped.

"I-I never knew…..," she whispered. She could not believe she missed such a big fact. She was supposed to be from a clan that were masters of the mind, yet she couldn't not see such obvious resemblance! She ought to be ashamed of herself!

If not for the age, Naruto and Namikaze Minato could be clones of each other. Blonde hair of almost identical shade, azure eyes that were unique to them- it could not be more obvious than that.

Sakura's jaw was almost unhinged. She couldn't believe she never saw the resemblance as well! It was so obvious! And come to think of it, she treated him like crap! The son of the hero who saved Konoha from the Kyuubi, treated like crap. Not just by her, but by the whole village, including her mother.

She wanted to crawl into a whole and just hide.

Kiba couldn't believe it. Well he could, but had a hard time comprehending it. The person who he thought could never become a competent shinobi in the first place had just beat the known prodigy of the Hyuga, a person who was favored the most to win the chunin exams. And apparently, he had done without breaking a sweat.

He ruefully chuckled, "I couldn't have been more wrong about him." Akamaru whined in agreement.

Tenten was shaking her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe Naruto had beaten her teammate, who she believed to be the strongest genin in Konoha. But then again, he had the Yondaime's jutsu on his side.

**Arena**

Genma frowned but nodded at the message sent from the Hokage. Turning to the crowd, he announced the kage's decision, "Due to not showing up in time for his match, Uchiha Sasuke has been disqualified from the final stage of these exams." He continued despite the booing from the crowd, "However, the Hokage has allowed an exhibition match between the winner of the tournament and Uchiha Sasuke in order to satisfy the visiting nobility. But he won't be given the chance to get promoted to chunin. Therefore, winner by disqualification, Sabaku no Gaara."

**Stands**

The audience, even though they were witness to a match such as that of the Hyuga and the Uzumaki, now revealed to be the sole Namikaze, were distraught to hear that the Hokage had chosen to disqualify the last Uchiha. Many were waiting solely to watch that match, so the reason for their displeasure was quite obvious.

Their spirits were lifted up a bit though, when they heard that the Uchiha would be fighting in an exhibition match with the winner of this tournament. Everyone began muttering amongst themselves excitedly. Just maybe, they might get to see a match between Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto.

The last Uchiha vs the last Namikaze.

Up in the area for the competing genin, Naruto was frowning at the latest announcement. "A bit of a partial treatment, don't you think?" He addressed Shikamaru.

Shikamaru frowned as well, "Yeah. He is getting a chance to fight, whereas any other genin wouldn't have been considered in the first place."

Naruto nodded in agreement and added to the point, "Not only that, but he will be in peak condition to fight, while we would be worn out from fighting all the opponents. It's more than a bit unfair."

Then he added mentally, _'Though that match won't be happening anyways. The invasion would maybe begin as soon as the quarter finals end. Thank you Kurama, for expanding my chakra reserves and making sure I am in top form today.'_

He received a snort in response, **'I care not much for your words. Thank me by making sure you defeat that accursed tanuki. He is trespassing on my area.'**

Naruto smirked at the command. He planned to do it anyway.

Down on the arena, Gaara turned and started walking back to the waiting area. His sand was twitching angrily as his next victim wasn't there. His blood had been pumping to fight the Uchiha, who he saw as a strong opponent. To find out he wasn't here….

The only reason he hadn't started killing everyone with his sand was that his next match was with the Uzumaki. Uzumaki Naruto was someone worthy, someone who would prove his existence.

Genma announced, "The next match will be between Aburame Shino and Sabaku no Kankuro."

Before he could say anything more, he was interrupted. "Proctor, I forfeit!" Kankuro's yell was followed by a confused look from Genma and a roar of disapproval from the crowd. Naruto narrowed his eyes at Kankuro and Temari. While Kankuro did not glance at him, Temari cast a nervous and tense look at him. Naruto just turned back to the arena.

He did not expect Sasuke of all people to be late to such an event. Maybe Kakashi was counting on to make a dramatic entrance for the last loyal Uchiha? Either way, he was disqualified, which meant one thing.

His next match was with Gaara.

Which was a good thing. He could neutralize Gaara before the invasion even began. Of course, that was not taking account of people who could likely interfere in the fight. In order for the invasion to succeed, it was critical that Gaara unleash the full form of his tailed beast. He intended to suck Gaara dry of all his chakra and as soon as he was weakened, slap the Five Elements seal onto him.

He just prayed he would be fast enough.

Back in the arena, Genma was announcing. "Then by default, the winner of the match is Aburame Shino. Thus, we can progress onto the next match. The next match is Nara Shikamaru vs Sabaku no Temari!"

Naruto glanced towards his right. He smiled when a determined look came over Temari. She pulled out her fan from her sash and swiped. Naruto whistled, impressed that such a large amount of wind was generated from just one swipe. He watched as Temari jumped onto her fan and gracefully glided towards where Genma was standing. She set her fan down with one hand, the other hand resting on her hip and smirking, fully confident of her victory.

'_Damn, that confidence makes her look so much sexier,' _Naruto thought with a slight nosebleed as he imagined some _very naughty _thoughts, ignoring the sniggering bastard within him. He wiped the blood off with his sleeve and glanced towards his left.

Shikamaru had a panicked look on his face. "Oi, oi, why is it always my match that gets jumped up?" He began to back away from the railing. "I'm forfeiting as well. I don't care what my troublesome kaa-san says or does to me, I am not-"

His rant was cut off when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He turned to face Naruto with a quizzical look. "What are you-"

"It's ok Shika," Naruto said, complete with the sympathetic look. Shikamaru gave him a suspicious look, so Naruto did his best not to smile. "But there's just one problem."

If possible, Shikamaru narrowed his eyes even further. "What?"

"You can't forfeit."

The next moment, he was standing right in front of a smirking proctor and Temari. He blinked once, trying to figure what the hell just happened and how did he get down here. He turned around, and saw the complete look of innocence on Naruto's face. He gave a look of bloody murder at the blonde he called his friend. He had the nerve to use the Flying Thunder God to send him to the arena. He turned around, grumbling that at least he didn't have to walk the distance from the waiting area to the center arena.

Naruto smirked when Shikamaru gave a burning glare at him. He wouldn't have been able to send Shikamaru the arena if a marker wasn't already present. As it happened to be, there indeed, _was_ a marker…on Temari's skin, right below her left butt cheek .

He put it on her while they were kissing in the alley, and he was holding her up by her butt. Her dress had rose up a bit, exposing more skin than what was appropriate for people of their age. A drop of blood trickled from his nose, _'Happy times…'_

He was brought back from a trip down the gutter by the proctor's call of beginning the match. He smirked when he saw Temari outright assaulting him, but had enough sense not to pursue him in the trees. He smirked as he saw the match progress, with Shikamaru passing time so as to lengthen the limit of his shadow.

While Temari was certainly clever enough to engage from long distance, she failed to see that Shikamaru was obviously leading her into a specific position. _'Sorry Temari, but you weren't in the winning position in the first place. You aren't ready to beat an opponent of Shikamaru's caliber…yet.'_

Naruto's guess about what Shikamaru was trying to do was proved right. While in the beginning of the match, it may have seemed that Shikamaru was randomly throwing kunai at her and missing. But Naruto knew that Shika didn't do anything without a purpose. When people are shown various, random pieces, they are confused and fail to see the bigger picture they make.

The match dragged on for almost an hour, but at the end of the hour, Temari was caught in the grasp of Shikamaru 's shadow. While it had seemed the kunai were just thrown around randomly, each of them had acted as a sort of 'platform' for the shadow to 'jump' from. Temari was too late to spot it, and finally got caught.

On the arena, Temari was frozen. She couldn't believe that she was caught like this. _'Dammit! I was too late to see it! I should have finished him early with a large-scale jutsu! Instead I got caught playing his game!'_

**Stands**

All the high ranking shinobi were amazed and impressed. The level of planning, the number of steps he had thought ahead…this was another shining example of chunin material. The exams this year were showcasing some real talent. Shikamaru played to his strengths, using his extreme talent for strategies to set a trap for his opponent. A trap that was clever enough not to be noticed by his opponent until it was too late. While he had not dispatched his opponent like Naruto, the skill shown was enough to tell that the lazy Nara was worthy of promotion.

Naruto had owned his fight from the start. Even though everyone was smart enough not to engage a Hyuga in taijutsu, Naruto knew he was better than Neji. Even when he was confronted with Neji's defensive technique, he proved his smarts as he found a way around it.

Overall, both the matches had shown that the genin from Konoha this year were worthy of being promoted.

**Arena**

Temari felt the unnerving feeling of not bring in control of her own body as it stiffly shuffled forward. It was very awkward to walk with movements not your own.

As the gap closed down between them to a mere five feet, they locked gazes. Shikamaru 's gaze was level, his eyes giving nothing away. Temari's gaze was full of defiance and fierce anger. She was glaring at him with her jade eyes so hard that Shikamaru briefly wondered if he would catch on fire. H raised his hand in the air, his shadow bind on Temari ensuring that she did the same. She quivered, trying as hard as she could to fight it. She refused to admit defeat to this lazy excuse of a shinobi!

"I give up! I don't have any chakra left." His lazy voice carried over clearly, and whatever the audience was going to say died in their throat.

_What. _Was the general reaction all around.

**Stands**

Asuma was shaking his head, "That kid has never been motivated for anything ever since I met him."

The audience slowly started clapping throughout the stadium. People could appreciate a good battle of minds, even if it wasn't as flashy or as big as they wanted it to be.

**Arena**

Genma just snorted and announced, "Winner, Sabaku no Temari!" Shikamaru released his hold on Temari, who only just managed to catch herself. She stared at the retreating back of the genin, and managed to stutter out. "W-Why?"

Shikamaru turned around and answered, shrugging in a way that really made him look like a guy who doesn't want to be bothered for anything. "It makes no sense to succumb to chakra exhaustion just for this when I might need my energy later."

He turned to go to the audience stands. As he had lost, he won't be fighting any future matches, so there was no reason for him to go back to the waiting area. As he approached the place where he had spotted Chouji before his fight, he was slightly surprised to see almost all the rookies and jonin senseis present, talking to Naruto. The blonde was chuckling at one of Lee's no doubt, highly youthful statements. Everyone was trying to talk to him, and Naruto was answering all their questions with a patient smile. The guy had become an instant celebrity.

He spotted Shikamaru walking up and turned away from the group, choosing to grin in the shadow user's face. Shikamaru gave him a look that froze his two teammates in place, while Sakura just gave a confused look to Naruto. Asuma and Kurenai were smirking, while Lee and Gai looked as if they would burst with their 'youthfulness' any moment.

Naruto waved a hand in his direction, grin not falling from his face for even a moment, "Go on, you look like you want to say something."

Shikamaru didn't bother wasting more energy to reply and merely sighed exhaustedly, dropping his glare. He dropped down between Ino and Chouji. Ino's attention immediately switched from Naruto to him, causing him to mutter something about tiresome blondes. Chouji, the sweet guy that he was, merely offered a potato chip with a smile. Shikamaru smiled back at his longtime friend and took a few, the crunching sound they made almost soothing to him.

**Arena **

Genma looked over to the Hokage, giving a questioning look. The Hokage shook his head and waved him to continue with the matches. Genma nodded and turned to the audience, "The quarter final matches are over! We will now proceed to the semi-finals! First semi-final match will be Sabaku no Gaara vs Uzumaki Naruto!"

**Audience**

The crowd roared in approval of the match, as they wanted to see, once again, the only son of the Yondaime in action. They were not going to see the Uchiha in action until the very end of the final match, but they weren't complaining about seeing Naruto in action in Sasuke's place.

Over to where the rookies and their senseis were standing, the atmosphere was completely different in comparison to the rest of the crowd. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. One second, everyone was talking ad joking around, the other second, everyone had grim faces. Only Naruto had a completely serious face that was not filled with any fear. No one had forgotten what Gaara had done to Lee back in the prelims.

"Would the contestants please come down?"

Gaara appeared in a whirl of sand next to Genma. Naruto took a deep breath and straightened up. He was about to walk down to the arena when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw that it was Asuma's. "Naruto," wow, he was serious, "be careful down there." Kurenai and Gai also nodded seriously around him. "Try to finish it as quickly as you can."

Naruto smirked, "I could finish it in a flash, but I've got a different strategy in mind." With that, he walked off, the rest of the rookies mumbling their good luck wishes. He snorted when Shikamaru mumbled a "You better not die." Ino swatted his head for that.

**Arena**

Naruto kept his eye on Gaara the entire time he walked to the center of the arena. Gaara had dropped all pretense of being calm and controlled. A grin not unlike that of a psychopathic killer graced his face as Naruto came to stand in front of him. The tension was so thick that it was almost suffocating. Gaara was releasing ungodly amounts of killer amount, his cork already twitching madly, as if the sand had a mind of its own instead of being in Gaara's control. Naruto, instead of releasing killing intent of his own, slowly started saturating the air with a moderate amount of chakra. His chakra was very dense, in addition to being almost soothing and had a positive feeling to it, unlike Gaara's. It somewhat eased the tension in the air.

Genma nervously watched both of them.

**Kage box**

Orochimaru smirked behind his veil. While he wished to see how Sasuke would do against Gaara, this was a fine arrangement as well. A match between two jinchuriki would no doubt prove very informative.

"This should be a very entertaining match, Kazekage-dono. Your son versus the Yondaime Hokage's son," Hiruzen commented with a chuckle, hiding his nervousness about Naruto's safety. "But you must understand my concern, given what happened to one of my genin in the prelims."

The other kage waved a hand, "Worry not, Hokage-dono. Your genin has proved himself to be most ingenious and resourceful. However, if worst does come to pass, I'll stop Gaara myself."

Hiruzen had to commend Orochimaru on his acting skills. Had he not known it was his former student under those robes, he would have believed that statement wholeheartedly. He turned his attention back to the match.

Naruto was up against a jinchuriki who had full control of his bijuu. He was fully confident in Naruto's skills, but he couldn't wave the worry away.

Something on the arena caught both the kage's attention.

**Arena**

Just as Genma was about to give the signal to begin, a sudden whirl of wind and leaves interrupted them and received a frown form Naruto and Gaara. As the whirlwind settled down, Naruto had to stop himself from looking thoroughly annoyed.

Two figures were standing back to back. Naruto mentally sighed, _'He really did want to make a dramatic entrance, after all.'_

Kakashi and Sasuke were standing right in between Gaara and Naruto. Kakashi looked the same as always, while Sasuke had dramatically changed his attire, opting for a darker theme. He wore a black, one-piece version of his usual attire, with bandages wrapped around his left arm.

Sasuke smirked as he came face to face with Gaara. He had trained heavily for the last month, even mastering a lethal jutsu. A jutsu that would secure him his victory. "Sorry I'm a bit late for our match. But we can begin now."

Gaara had made it very clear back in the prelims that he was very excited to face Sasuke in the finals and couldn't wait for the match. So it came as a shock to Sasuke when Gaara coldly replied, "Move aside, you are in my way."

No reply came to his mouth, only snapping out of the shock when he heard Kakashi's voice. "I-Is that you, Naruto?"

Kakashi blinked as he came face to face with a face that looked painfully similar to his late sensei. The dots took a moment to connect and once they did, his eye went wide. "I-Is that you, Naruto?"

Naruto was already annoyed for the interruption, so his patience was thinner than usual. He snapped back, "Yes it's me. Now would you mind taking Sasuke to the stands with you? You are interfering with my match."

Kakashi blinked and turned to Genma, "We are not late, are we?"

Genma gave him his best deadpan look, "You are a bit too late, actually. Uchiha Sasuke has been disqualified due to being late for his fight and won't be fighting in any of the matches for a chance at promotion. He will only fight in an exhibition match at the very end of the tournament."

Anger filled Sasuke's features and he snarled in a whisper, "You can't do that!"

Genma was unimpressed with the glare. "Tell that to the Hokage. It was his decision in the first place. Now get out of my arena," he motioned to them.

Sasuke turned his snarl onto Naruto,_ "Move, Naruto. _This is my fight!"

Naruto fired back in a calm manner, "Your match was in the quarter finals, Sasuke. This is the semi-finals. Get off the field."

Sasuke almost made to punch Naruto when Kakashi grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Calm down, Sasuke." Turning to Naruto, he gave an eye smile. The whole month he had felt tremendously guilty for not training Naruto. Seeing this as the semi-finals, it was easy to conclude that Naruto had won his first match against Neji. "Congratulations on winning your first fight, Naruto. All the best for this one!"

With that, he shunshined to the stands with all the rookies and jonin senseis.

Genma turned to Naruto and Gaara. "Are you two ready?"

Naruto nodded, while Gaara made his impatience known. "Just start it already. Mother is hungry for his blood."

Genma nodded and chopped the air in front of him. "Hajime!"

Naruto immediately jumped back. Gaara whispered with a crazy expression, "Make me feel alive, Uzumaki." The cork on his gourd flew off with the pressure his sand was putting on it. An enormous amount of sand-almost half of it, Naruto estimated-flew out and rushed towards him.

Naruto immediately flash stepped to twenty meters behind Gaara to avoid it. _'It's not enough. I'll have to goad him until he unleashes every grain of his goddamn sand!'_

He pulled out four of his Hiraishin kunai, and flash stepped back to his previous position to avoid the stab of sand. The only thing he left behind was the kunai, lodged in the ground.

He repeated the process until the four kunai were scattered in a trapezius position around Gaara. "You won't get me like that! Come on, show me what you got!"

He then flashed to a kunai to escape Gaara's sand. It was a waiting game for him now.

**Kage box**

"He is not so forward in this fight as he was in his previous one, Hokage-dono."

Hiruzen nodded his head, "He might be scouting for Gaara's weakness to form a viable plan. We'll just have to wait and see."

Orochimaru chuckled, "Gaara's defense is absolute, Hokage-dono. He would run out of chakra faster than he would find a weakness."

Hiruzen smirked, "We both know what happened to the so called _ultimate defense _of the Hyuga, Kazekage-dono."

He refrained from chuckling at the silence that followed.

**Stands**

The whole audience was leaning forward in their seats, eager to see the famous Hiraishin no jutsu in action. The rookies were all wondering what the blonde was up to.

Ino asked, confused, "Why is he scattering those kunai? It's not like he's using them to attack Gaara or something."

Shikamaru was frowning as well, trying to discern Naruto's strategy. Just what was he up to?

If anyone looked at Sasuke, they would think that he was about to burst a blood vessel on his forehead. His jaw was clenched and eyes filled with jealousy and scorn as he looked at Naruto easily dodging Gaara's attempts, sharingan fully activated.

'_What is that jutsu? Is that the reason he is so fast?! My eyes can't even begin to trace his movements! He looks as if he isn't even beginning to get tired! I should be the one who knows that jutsu, so I can use it to kill __**him! **__What does he need it for?! Just how far ahead of me are you, Naruto?!'_

Sasuke was pissed as whatever jutsu Naruto was using to doge Gaara's sand, he wasn't using any hand signs, so Sasuke had no chance of copying it.

Kakashi had pulled his head band up as soon as the match had begun. While he should be saving it for the invasion, he wanted to see Naruto use his sensei's legacy in action. He watched as Naruto put the kunai around Gaara, put doing nothing but teleporting from one to another. His eyes narrowed as pieces of a similar tactic came to his mind, but could not piece it together.

By his side, Asuma spoke up in a grave tone, "Gaara will get mad if Naruto keeps doing this. Getting that kid mad is the last thing he needs to do."

Kakashi absently spoke up, eyes keenly observing the match, "On second thought, that might be _exactly _what he might be trying to do."

The three other jonin whipped to stare at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. The genin, who had heard the conversation as well, turned to stare at him with wide eyes as well. But unlike the jonin, there was a bit of fear and horror in their eyes.

"Is he mad or what?" Ino almost shrieked.

But Kakashi was not worried at all. From what he had seen of Naruto up until now, Naruto resembled his father more than his mother. And if Naruto was even half like his father was, he had no reason to worry.

**Arena**

He could see it; Gaara was beginning to show signs of irritation at his repeated escape attempts. He had started to flash step around as well, not wanting to give Gaara a pattern to follow his kunai. If he thought Naruto was only using the kunai to escape his grasp, he just might uprootand throw them away.

Gaara was gritting his teeth as Uzumaki yet again escaped his grasp. More sand flew from his gourd as he tried cover a larger area with it, cutting Naruto's chances of escape. "Why are you escaping, Uzumaki? Face me!"

'_Now's my chance!' _

Flash stepping to a more cleared part of the arena, he called out. "Gaara!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes, his sand momentarily pausing in its pursuit of Naruto. "What is it Uzumaki? Are you afraid to face me? Is that why you are running away?"

To his surprise, Naruto snorted out loud. "You think those pathetic attacks can get to me? Your sand has yet to even come close to touching me! Come on, Gaara, unleash every drop of your sand!"

His words had the intended effect on Gaara. More sand flew out of his gourd, and he uncrossed his arms. His face split into a truly frightening grin. Naruto internally smirked. _'Just one more push should do it!'_

Naruto spread his arms out, "In your own words…Make me feel alive." The last part was whispered with a challenging grin.

That finally did it for Gaara. An opponent who was asking the same thing he asked from him! This was almost like a rare treat for him! No one asked him to make them feel alive, as he was usually the one to do it. With deadly intent, he whispered, "Fine, Uzumaki."

He commanded all of his sand to come out of the gourd, which was truly a huge amount. It could cover almost one entire half of the arena in ankle deep sand. He shouted as he spread his own hands, almost laughing. "Let's make each other feel alive!"

**Kage box**

Hiruzen was intently observing the match, trying to make out Naruto's plan. Naruto was mad if he wanted to fight Gaara at full power, but there was a glint in Naruto's eyes that told him that this was part of a plan.

Orochimaru was barely refraining from laughing in joy. He couldn't have asked for a more entertaining match. He doubted that even Sasuke could have given such entertainment to him. He secretly signaled for his people to be ready.

The time for the invasion to start was drawing to a close.

**Stands**

Every rookie and jonin sensei watched in horror as Naruto asked Gaara to come at him with full power. He had basically just signed his death warrant, many thought.

Sakura almost shrieked, "What is that idiot doing?!"

Gai nodded grimly, "I have to agree with your student, Kakashi. Fighting that genin at full power seems to be an extremely bad idea."

Kakashi gave no reply as worry began creeping in him. He could only hope Naruto had a plan to deal with that amount of sand.

Sasuke intently watched with his sharingan active, ready to spot any hand signs that Naruto might weave. He would take any opportunity to copy Naruto's jutsu. Not once did concern rang for his teammate potentially facing his death.

**Arena**

The crowd gasped at seeing the huge amount of sand rotating behind Gaara in form of a vortex. Gaara was grinning in a way that would have sent many shinobi running in the opposite direction, but not Naruto. Naruto was prepared for this.

"TAKE THIS, UZUMAKI!"

The vortex rushed towards with the force of a sandstorm. Naruto narrowed his eyes and gathered his chakra. He jumped almost impossibly high, clean above the rushing vortex, two Hiraishin kunai in hand.

He threw one of them twenty meters behind Gaara, completing the pattern he was going for. Gaara was so deep into his bloodlust that he failed to take notice of the kunai arranged around him in a pentagon. The other one went twenty meters ahead of the kunai he just threw.

As he predicted, the vortex changed direction and headed right for him, when he was still in the jump. He thought he might have heard someone shouting his name, but he could have imagined it. Just as the vortex was about to hit him, he flashed to the last kunai he threw, momentarily entering safe zone.

**Stands**

Sakura could no longer hold her concern for her teammate. Everyone watched in horror as the vortex almost swallowed, at which point Sakura shouted.

"NARUTO!"

She practically melted in relief when Naruto disappeared, reappearing at the kunai he just threw. Looking back, she saw that everyone unconsciously relaxed from the tension.

Kakashi didn't know that he was holding his breath until he released it. He had not seen such dangerous maneuvers in a long time. He was used to seeing his sensei do it like that, but Naruto on the other hand…

It was strangely nostalgic, almost like seeing his sensei in action

**Arena**

Naruto appeared at the kunai in a crouch, expression serious and eyes set on the sand vortex. Gaara turned around and wasted no time in sending the vortex towards Naruto very gleefully, but this time, he split it in four, so that it would converge on Naruto from four different directions.

Naruto only needed two hand seals to make this work. He had already saturated the air with his chakra before, so his chances of success were high. Tiger-Bird;

'_Suiton: Mizu Tatsumaki no jutsu!' _(Water style: Water tornado technique)

Naruto converted the entire amount of chakra he had saturated the air with into water chakra. A giant spinning vortex made of water of his own seemed to suddenly come into existence around him. The four smaller vortexes of sand crashed into the vortex from four different sides.

Naruto was rotating his water vortex at such a high speed that the sand the crashed into it was dispersed almost instantly upon contact, becoming wet and heavy.

**Kage box**

"It is very surprising to see that he has a water affinity as well. One strong enough to draw water from thin air. Wasn't the Nidaime known for the same feat?" Orochimaru asked in genuine surprise. Not every day he met ninja, let alone a genin, who could perform feat like some of the kage.

Hiruzen nodded, a relieved smile appearing on his face. He did have a plan after all, he mused.

**Stands**

The crowd was cheering Naruto on. They thought that Naruto would escape using the Hiraishin, or worse, get crushed. But then, a tornado of water came into existence around him from seemingly nowhere. It protected Naruto from the sand perfectly.

The jonin were once again wide eyed, including Kakashi. Kurenai shook her head, "He drew water from the air around him…most water users can't do even half of what he just did!"

Gai and Lee were shouting. "SUCH YOUTHFULNESS!"

Kakashi pointed out to his peers and the genin, whose eyes were wide with wonder at the display of power. "Not just that, but that jutsu acted both as a defense and an offense in Naruto's favor. Sand becomes heavy when hit with water. So by hitting Gaara's sand with water, Naruto negated the sheer control Gaara had on his sand, ensuring his safety simultaneously. No doubt, Gaara would find wet sand increasingly difficult to control."

As Kakashi explained Naruto's move, Sasuke found himself getting increasingly frustrated. Why was Naruto so powerful in comparison to him?! Was he hiding this much all along?! He had to painfully admit, Naruto had dealt with Gaara much more efficiently than he would have. He had nothing but taijutsu, speed and the jutsu Kakashi had taught him to deal with Gaara, which really wasn't much compared to what Naruto had. His fire was useless unless it was hot enough to turn sand into glass, which it wasn't. He couldn't even copy Naruto's jutsu, for fuck's sake! In addition to the absence of a water affinity, he needed to see all the hand signs to copy a jutsu. Naruto obviously had a very high water affinity to use a jutsu like that, that too in the absence of water and with only two hand seals.

He knew Naruto had a large amount of chakra but this was just ridiculous. He was still not looking winded!

He clenched his fists so tight that blood seeped out. The cursed seal throbbed on his shoulder, but he forcefully pushed its influence back. _'I will make your power my own, Naruto! Just you wait!'_

**Arena**

Naruto maintained the vortex for about five seconds, after which the sand stopped coming. Dispersing the vortex outwards with a flourish, he smirked at the results. All the sand that he had been attacked by was now wet, saturated with water and heavy. It won't be as fast as before.

Gaara watched in alarm as his sand collided into a water vortex that seemingly came out of nowhere. He realized too late, even with mother shouting in his head, what Naruto had planned but it was too late. Almost all the sand was wet now, and only a tiny amount was available to him, the only amount he was able to pull back before it was too late. He rotated it in the form of a ring around him to prevent it from getting anymore wet.

Naruto didn't waste time admiring the effects of his jutsu. Forming the bird seal, he took a deep breath and let go. _'Suiton: Mizurappa!' _(Water style: Violent water wave)

A jet of water was expelled from his mouth, heading towards Gaara with great force. Gaara looked stunned as the sand automatically formed as a barrier in front of him, taking the brunt of the water. Gaara hadn't felt this helpless in a long time. Uzumaki had a counter for his sand, which was a major part of how he fought. He could make his own sand, but that took him some time, which he didn't have. He would have to do it nonetheless. He molded a huge amount of his own chakra, sand particles slowly forming in front of him. He couldn't help but let his excitement grow a little. It was hard to remember just when he had let loose like this the last time.

Naruto smirked as the last of the sand fell in front of Gaara, wet and unusable. He had taken into account that a sand user such as Gaara would be able to form his own sand even if he negated it, which was exactly what Gaara was trying to do now.

'_Oh no, you don't!' _Boar-snake-dragon-ram. The kunai finally would come into play. Gaara's choice of standing in one place would cost him dearly.

**Kage box**

"Very clever of him to have negated Gaara's sand, Hokage-dono. I can't help but feel that Naruto-kun is well above the level of a chunin, don't you think?"

Hiruzen smiled in pride as Naruto used the element of water to completely turn the tables on Gaara. He couldn't help but be reminded of Tobirama-sensei. He was pretty much the same. His mastery of water was so unrivalled that he used to turn the battle in his favor in a place where there was no water.

Considering that Naruto now had a jinchuriki on the ropes without resorting to his own bijuu chakra, he was starting to feel the same. Naruto was well above the level of a chunin. He doubted any jonin could have turned the tides like Naruto did.

**Stands**

"Holy shit! Did you see that?!" Ino shrieked, pointing at Naruto as if she couldn't believe it.

Shikamaru slowly nodded, still trying to make sense of how Naruto did what he just did. "He took away Gaara's greatest advantage."

Sakura was smiling with happiness. At first she had doubted Naruto could beat Gaara, but Naruto had shown that he could find a way around the impossible.

**Arena**

Gaara was still concentrating on forming his sand when a light green shield rose up around him. He whipped his head from side to side, trying to figure out how it came into existence without him noticing. Then he felt it. He knew he was draining his chakra forming his sand, but he the chakra drain was much larger than he usually felt. He then noticed the light green barrier was slowly turning into a darker shade. He looked down to his feet, noticing that he was standing in the center of a complex sealing array shaped like a pentagon.

His eyes widened in realization. This was a chakra absorbing barrier!

Naruto was smirking as he held up the ram seal. _Uzumaki fuinjutsu: Kisei Shoheki _(Uzumaki sealing arts: Parasitic barrier) was a success. This pentagonal barrier was designed by the Uzumaki clan to suck the chakra right out of their enemies. The best thing about this barrier was that the users only need to spend an initial amount of chakra to simply build the barrier, not maintain. The barrier maintained itself and grew stronger by sucking the chakra of the people trapped inside.

This barrier was designed to be used by five people. But Naruto's dad had written in his notes that he was able to use this barrier all by himself with the help of his special kunai.

The formula on the kunai acted as a sort of dimensional rift. Instead of sending himself through that rift, Minato sent his chakra to all the five points, thus successfully setting up the barrier.

For Naruto, this was no problem at all. His chakra control was excellent and on a level that he could split his chakra and send it in different direction, _through a dimensional slipstream, _without any problem. And, he had more than enough chakra to spare.

Gaara tried to use whatever sand he had built up, which was only a small amount, to break the barrier. Naruto called out, "It's fruitless, Gaara! This barrier will take more than just physical attacks to break!"

**Kage box**

"Incredible….simply incredible," Orochimaru breathed out in amazement. To be able to use fuinjutsu like this, in conjunction to the Hiraishin…it was a testament to Naruto's genius and the incredible amount of power and skill that he had.

Hiruzen was in the same state of awe, though he was able to keep it to himself. Minato was the only one who was capable of using barriers like this. For Naruto to replicate this feat, it spoke volumes of his mastery of the art.

"You have a true gem in your forces, Hokage-dono," Orochimaru complimented. Though he was silently lamenting why he could not mark Naruto. Putting his curse seal on a jinchuriki was something that even he didn't want to test.

Hiruzen smiled in pride, "That I do, Kazekage-dono."

**Stands**

The audience was in awe of the power and skill displayed by the last Namikaze. As soon as he had trapped Gaara inside, they had erupted into cheers that could be heard throughout the entire village.

Asuma stuttered out, "W-What power…." He had only ever seen barriers of this magnitude used by a single person, and that was the Yondaime.

Kurenai simply gaped at the skill being displayed.

Gai was shouting something about youthfulness again, so only Lee was listening to him. Everyone had tuned out both of them.

Kakashi gazed in utter pride as he watched Naruto corner Gaara and trap him inside his barrier. "Sensei, you would be proud of who Naruto has become," he whispered. He looked over to see the genin reactions.

Sakura and Ino were cheering loudly, while Shikamaru and Chouji were leaning forward with smiles, Chouji's more vibrant than that of Shikamaru's, interested in seeing what Naruto would do next. He smiled at seeing their reactions.

'_Naruto, you managed to make your comrades believe in you. Earlier, they may not have found you to be trustworthy, however today, you managed to convince them that they can trust you with their lives,' _Kakashi thought, pride inside him growing by the second.

He glanced to the side, and found himself disappointed. He wondered, not for the first time since arriving to the stadium, whether or not he had made the right choice in choosing to ditch Naruto and train Sasuke for the finals. He was beginning to think he may have been wrong after all.

Sasuke had clenched his jaw, his fists and was watching Naruto dispatch Gaara with efficiency he knew he didn't have. Naruto's way had been very professional. First, find the weakness. Second, exploit the weakness and take away the strengths. Finally, finish him off. He didn't even have words to express just how furious he was, both with Naruto and himself.

He was furious with Naruto for being so much stronger than him. He was furious with himself for being so weak compared to Naruto. _He_ wanted to be the strongest! Only when he was strongest would he be able to kill _**him! **_His sharingan flashed; he wanted to copy all the techniques Naruto had to offer and leave him with nothing. Only he deserved to be the strongest, not him!

Kakashi shook his head. Perhaps training Sasuke was a bad choice after all. Not surprising, considering the number of those type of choices he had made in his life. Sasuke looked like he would sooner kill Naruto and take his techniques for himself than call Naruto a friend and a comrade.

**Arena**

Naruto watched Gaara dropped to all fours, no doubt the result of the barrier absorbing his chakra, which was now a dark shade of green. He dropped the barrier as soon as Gaara looked he would pass out. He ran forward, making sure not to use a flash step.

Gaara was breathing heavily, trying not drop in exhaustion. This was the first time he had suffered something like this, and all because of that damn Uzumaki. Rage began to boil inside as mother began screaming in his head.

'**Kill him Gaara! Kill him! Give me his blood! I want his blood!'**

'_Yes mother,' _Gaara agreed before looking up to glare at Uzumaki. He was about to take mother's power when he was suddenly sent flying, landing in a heap.

Naruto had punched him on the nose with enough force to break it, and watched with some satisfaction as Gaara was sent flying. He landed about ten meters from Naruto, and Naruto feared that he had knocked the redhead out. But then Gaara stirred, causing Naruto to relax a bit. Gaara stood up on shaky legs, which Naruto took as a positive sign to initiate the last part of his plan.

His fingertips on the right hand lit up in five purple, kanji characters.

**Kage box**

Orochimaru's eyes widened in panic. _'He knows __**that **__as well?! I can't let him put that seal on Gaara!'_

He immediately gave his signal to start the invasion.

**Arena**

Naruto was about run and slam the seal onto Gaara, making sure Shukaku didn't come out to play. Gaara felt something wet on his face; he wiped his hand and took a look at what it was.

A scream so chilling erupted from his throat, and Naruto took that as his chance. If he was late, he would never be able to put it on Gaara again.

"BLOOD! MY BLOOD!" Gaara screamed in pain. He had never seen his own blood before. He wasn't if he even had it. But he knew now, and it hurt _so badly _to see his blood. His mind snapped, and he only wanted to kill everyone and everything that hurt him, including Uzumaki Naruto. A roar that was not entirely is own came from him.

Naruto was five feet from Gaara, fingers outstretched and ready to slap it on him, when sand erupted from Gaara, coming from _god knows where, _in the shape of a hand covered in purple lines, shooting towards him. Naruto flashed towards the farthest kunai, escaping from being grabbed by a hair's breadth.

"Shit."

His danger sense rang, and he turned his head to the Kage box, where an explosion took place and suddenly, feathers were falling from above.

The invasion had begun, and he was too late to stop it.

**P.S: Wow, my longest chapter till date! Hope you enjoy, and forgive any simple mistakes I might have made. Leave your thoughts in your reviews. Laters!**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 18

**Author's note: Wow…..Just, wow. The responses for the previous chapter have simply been amazing. I had no idea…that it would be so well received. Thank you so much, everyone. Moving on to the first order of business, there are some reviews that something that I had somewhat overlooked. Someone said that with all the speed that Naruto had, why didn't he finish it early instead of dragging on his matches?**

**Well, first of all, I did say that Naruto would be like his father. But I did not go through all of Naruto's character development for nothing. If he just ended it with Hiraishin, the previous chapters would have gone waste. I made Naruto more of an all rounded shinobi, an ideal shinobi like Kakashi. My Naruto won't be attacking each opponent head on like an idiot. He will be like Minato, analyzing each opponent until he has what he needs to defeat him. He dragged Neji's match on for obvious purposes. The reason he did not use hiraishin against Gaara from the beginning is that Gaara's defense would have prohibited him from doing so; even if he's faster than Lee, he would be wasting chakra and time. I opted to disable Gaara's sand first, followed by his ability to make more sand immediately.**

**Now that I have answered that, let's move one. Also, all of useless complaints have been dutifully ignored, and **_**constructive **_**criticism has been taken into consideration instead. Enjoy!**

**P.S: I have a feeling this chapter might end up being longer than even the previous one! But don't worry, I'll be finishing the invasion in this chapter!**

**P.P.S: I have been meaning to change the story's name for some time, but I have a doubt. Those who can answer my query, please do. If I change the story's name, will it still remain in the communities that it has been added to in the past, or will it be removed? Also, will it be difficult for people to search for it if I do? Please answer if you can. **

Naruto watched with narrowed eyes as chaos seemed to make its presence known across the whole stadium in just a moment. _'No doubt about it. The invasion has begun. And most probably, this is not the only place that is being attacked. Oto and Suna shinobi would most likely be attacking the most vulnerable areas as well….like the academy.' _His eyes narrowed at the last thought in silent anger.

It was a perfect strategy to kickstart Konoha's destruction. If they attack the foundation of shinobi in the village, the field where the future generation of shinobi were born and bred, Konoha would be absolutely crippled. The amount of time it would take to recover from such an attack would be so long that it wasn't even funny.

'_I really hope ero-sennin is still in village. For now though, I have other things to concentrate on.' _He sensed foreign chakra in his system, a genjutsu settling on him, trying to put him to sleep. A quick pulse of his chakra shattered the genjutsu, and just in time too. His danger sense rang in alarm, alerting him of a threat behind his back. He didn't need to turn around to find out what it was, he already knew.

Just as the arm of sand reached him, red lightning wildly danced around his body. Naruto ducked right under it, and spun on his heel, thrusting his right palm right into Gaara's chest. Only then he got a good look at what Gaara had transformed into.

His right arm had transformed into a giant claw of sand, which had purple lines, looking suspiciously like seal markings. His gourd seemed to have _melted_ into sand, having spread over his right arm and his back. A huge tail had formed on his back, which Naruto deduced had enough swing force behind it to smack someone right into unconsciousness. Naruto then saw where he had struck and smirked. Gaara's chest was uncovered by the sand, exposed for all to strike.

He amped up the lightning, causing lightning to streak across Gaara's body. Gaara roared in pain, his muscles spasming and contracting against his will. On instinct, his tail swung around with devastating force to strike Naruto away. Naruto neatly backflipped away, and was up in his stance immediately, his Hiraishin kuni held in both hands, reverse grip.

The shock of Naruto's lightning was enough to throw Gaara back several feet, light burns appearing on the places that weren't shielded by his sand. Gaara sat up groaning, putting both of his hands on either side of his head. Naruto knew well enough what was going on, and this was his chance to stop it. Just as he was about to rush at Gaara, four figures dropped between the two of them, causing Naruto to narrow his eyes. The eyes narrowed further when two more figures jumped right in front of him.

Sasuke saw the genjutsu and easily dispelled it, wondering what the hell was going on. He then set his eyes on the arena, seeing Naruto face off against all the three siblings?

Sasuke frowned, looking around. The entire population of the audience seemed to have fallen asleep, most likely the result of a genjutsu. Looking back at the field, he made a split-second decision and jumped off, landing right in front of Naruto and dropping into his stance. _'I may not know what is going on, but I'll be dammed if I let you fight all of them alone! You already have stolen one of my fights, I won't let you do it again!'_

Genma was not entirely surprised when the invasion began. The senior shinobi had been briefed upon the invasion by the Sandaime, so they already had their orders on what to do. Genma looked at Naruto, who was in a fighting stance against the sand siblings and a jonin, most likely their sensei. He chewed on the senbon he always kept in his mouth. _'Considering what I've seen up until now, Naruto could easily hold his own against those. But it's better not to take chances!' _

He jumped in front of Naruto as well, noting with slight surprise that the Uchiha arrived as well. _'Good, I wouldn't mind some extra backup, especially an Uchiha.' _He took his stance as well, facing the four sand shinobi.

Baki sweated a bit as he looked at his opponents. A jonin of Konoha, one who he could likely take on and win, but he wasn't sure if his students could win against the other two.

He wasn't that much worried about the Uchiha. While he had won his fight in the prelims, he had shown nothing special over there. If Temari and Kankuro were to team up, they could likely defeat him. But it was the blonde that he was most worried about.

The cold, azure eyes that reminded him of a legendary shinobi of the past. Those eyes contained no mercy, only cold deadliness that could kill you in the blink of an eye. Uzumaki Naruto had just become a major obstacle in their plans. With the Hiraishin no jutsu, Namikaze Minato had finished off a thousand of Iwa's shinobi in mere seconds, single-handedly securing Konoha's victory of the third great shinobi war. Baki had no doubt that his son could do the same. He had almost defeated Gaara, and would likely have if the signal for the invasion hadn't been given and he hadn't interfered. They would have to tread carefully.

Looking back at Gaara, he noted the various burns on him that were healing slowly, but surely. A bad sign, considering that the redhead was clutching his head, no doubt fighting an inner debate. "Temari, Kankuro," he spoke in a low voice. Once he had their attention, he said, "Gaara's a vital part of the invasion. But right now, he can't fight. Take him to a secure place until he heals and recovers his chakra. Once he is fully recovered, resume your mission."

Kankuro nodded and picked Gaara up, "Understood." Temari nervously glanced at the opposing side, specifically at Naruto. For the last two days, she had spent most of her time thinking on what she would do if she and Naruto faced each other in the invasion. After much thought and deliberation, she had come to the conclusion that she won't be able to bring herself to kill Naruto. Her feelings for the blonde were only growing. She pushed back her tears on seeing him now; his eyes were colder than what they had been two days ago. She could see no hesitation in them, only iron-hard resolve.

Kankuro nudged her, "Let's go, Temari." Steeling her own resolve, she nodded and they both jumped over the stadium walls, heading into the forests of Konoha.

Genma made a sound of irritation, and slightly turned his head to address the two genin. He didn't know why this decision made sense, but he had no choice. Kakashi had already issued his orders to him. The nerve of that cyclops…

"Uchiha Sasuke," he spoke in a serious tone, drawing the attention of the said Uchiha. "You have been said to be above your peers, so I'm going to assume that you are chunin level already." He was interrupted by a smirking Sasuke.

"You want me to pursue them and defeat Gaara, right?"

Genma nodded. He hated sending genin, who he didn't even know the level of, after a murderous, homicidal psychopath who was also a jinchuriki. But orders were orders, after all. "Try to hold out as long as you can. I'll send backup as soon as I can!"

Sasuke snorted. "Backup won't be necessary. I'll defeat them!" He shot Naruto a challenging look before jumping after the three siblings over the wall.

Naruto watched as his teammate disappeared over the wall. _Arrogant, impulsive idiot._ Not dropping his guard, he addressed the proctor. "Genma-san, was it a good idea to send him alone to fight an unstable jinchuriki? Particularly when he has no backup?"

Genma replied, "Sorry kid, but I had no other choice at the moment. Kakashi already gave me orders to send you to him once the invasion begins! Report to him for your assignment immediately!"

Naruto did not like the situation at all, but could do little about it. Nodding, he immediately located Kakashi's marker and flashed away, leaving Genma and Baki to face off. Genma began in his usual lazy drawl, "You guys have a lot of nerve, attacking us like you did."

Baki scoffed as he pulled out a kunai, "Less talk, more fighting, tree hugger."

XXXXXXX

Kakashi was keeping a close eye on his surroundings, and couldn't help but worry when Sasuke leapt off in pursuit of the siblings. Naruto would have been a way better choice, but he had not counted Sasuke's disqualification as a part of his plans. He could only hope Sasuke remained alive until backup arrived. _'Backup….now that's an idea.'_

He was posted for protection duty. He was to ensure that the civilians were safely transported to safety under the protection of the ANBU. He looked over to the arena, and saw Naruto nodding at something that Genma said and vanishing a moment later. That was perhaps the only reason he did not jump in surprise when Naruto suddenly appeared beside him.

"Naruto, you are working with me today, if only temporarily. The forces would soon be swarming in the stadium any moment. The ANBU are clearing the stadium of the civilians. We will be tackling the forces inside the stadium."

Naruto nodded seriously. "Was it really a good idea to send Sasuke after those three instead of me, sensei?"

Kakashi resisted the urge to sigh. He had already questioned himself that plenty of time already. "Not really, but I'm hoping he would be able to hold out until I send you after him. Now pay attention! The first of the forces are coming!"

Indeed, the sand and the sound shinobi had started entering the stadium. Naruto narrowed his eyes and made a half ram sign. Kakashi watched curiously as a shadow clone popped into existence, with the same seriousness on his face. He watched as Naruto pulled out a scroll from his right hip pouch and handed it over to the clone. "You know what to do."

The clone nodded and vanished a moment later. Kakashi turned serious, "What was that you gave to your clone, Naruto? And where is he going?"

Naruto gave him a smirk, "Don't worry, sensei. Just a little help for our dear Hokage."

Kakashi narrowed his eye, but let it go. He trusted Naruto not to do anything stupid in this situation. "Alright, I'll trust you on this one. But first, you engage them with Gai. I'll join you in a moment and tell you when you have to go!"

Naruto nodded and almost flinched when Gai appeared by his side. "Yosh! Let's go, Naruto! We'll show them the consequences of their unyouthfulness!"

Naruto just muttered, "Hai, whatever you say."

The two of them vanished, appearing on the battlefield. Kakashi looked around; the ANBU were engaging the shinobi on the stands, providing cover for panicking civilians to escape and head to the shelters. He easily dealt with the two shinobi that were headed his way, slitting their throats within a minute. He looked over the stands, trying to find where his pink haired student had crawled off to. He spotted her in the very back, and smiled. She had dragged the entirety of team 10 with her in the back, in the hopes that they won't be discovered. He had to give it her; the girl had grown some balls to be able to get her comrades into a safe zone in the middle of the enemy.

He stealthily made his way to her. "Sakura!" He was immensely proud when she immediately turned to face him, a kunai in hand. She immediately lowered the kunai. "Kakashi-sensei! Don't scare me like that!"

Kakashi eye smiled, but then turned serious when Sakura asked him. "Sensei? Do you know where Sasuke-kun and Naruto are?"

Kakashi contemplated on what to tell her. "I know where Naruto is right now, but you don't worry about him right now. As for Sasuke, I've got a mission for you."

Sakura blinked, "A mission?"

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen took note of the feathers falling as he turned his head towards the Kazekage. The other man took the same action and as their eyes met, a smoke bomb exploded on the balcony hiding them from view. The Hokage's attendant yelled for him to run but it was too late as a kunai buried itself in his chest. The Kazekage leapt to the roof with the Hokage under his arm and a kunai to the old man's throat. A team of ANBU darted after them but had to turn as the Kazekage's attendants appeared behind them. With a quick slice the two men became four, but the pieces of the bodies didn't drop as they tossed off their cloaks, revealing four teens. The four now exposed Oto-nin quickly flashed through seals before pushing their palms out and naming their collaboration jutsu. **"Shishienjin!"**

A purple wall came into existence in front of them, taking the shape of a cubic barrier. An ANBU was about to test the barrier when the voice of the ANBU captain rang out.

"Don't touch the shield, or you will burn!" he said to the ANBU standing by his side.

"But taicho, what about Hokage-sama?!"

The captain grit his teeth and looked at the four Oto-nin holding up the barrier. He was not a fool; whatever was going to happen inside the barrier, it would likely be something big and dangerous enough to kill the hokage. If he attacked the Oto shinobi, there was a chance that the danger inside the barrier would be unleashed onto the village. He could not take that chance.

Not to mention, the four nin had secondary barriers around themselves, the function of which they were unaware of. He had no idea how to release either of the barriers. Their odds were very, very bad.

"Guess we'll have to have some faith in our Hokage….."

XXXXXXX

The clone watched from his hidden perch with calculative days as a purple barrier went up on the roof of the building of the Kage box. "So they decided to use _that _barrier…not bad," he mused as the barrier went up as tall as almost four hundred feet.

"Good thing the old man already has a mark on him. Otherwise, doing this would have been almost impossible," he remarked to himself as he flashed away.

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen glared at the smirking form of his former student. He had entirely expected this to happen, so he had worn his battle robes under his hokage robes.

"Orochimaru…..," He whispered, ready for any trick his student might pull. Orochimaru noticed this and chuckled.

"It seems you expected all of this sensei. It didn't miss my attention that the Konoha shinobi were rather, unusually tense."

Orochimaru looked at the old, but determined form of his sensei and almost chuckled. Did he really think he would win against him today? He was already pushing himself at the age of seventy, which was no age to be exerting yourself as a shinobi. Not to mention, he had a guaranteed success, with his newest ace in the hole.

Orochimaru smirked deviously, "Do you think you can defeat me at your age, sensei?"

Hiruzen ignored the taunt and said, "This time you went really far, Orochimaru. It was my greatest mistake to let you escape that day, but no more. Today, you will die, even if I have to take you with me."

Orochimaru asked curiously, "Where is all this courage coming from, sensei?"

Hiruzen was stoic and instantly replied, "This is….my will of fire. As long as it burns strong within me, I can guarantee your defeat. You can never defeat someone whose will of fire burns strong."

Orochimaru chuckled, which turned into a full laugh, "What courage you display in the face of your death, sensei. But today, I'll show you just how weak your will of fire is, that is, when I extinguish it and raze this village to ashes."

Hiruzen glared at him, and was about to attack when something flashed blue in his peripheral vision. He almost fell due to surprise. "Naruto! What are you doing here?!"

His heartbeat increased rapidly as he saw the blonde standing right beside him inside the barrier, facing Orochimaru. Before he could enter the state of outright panic, Naruto raised a hand. "Don't worry, Hokage-sama. I'm just a clone."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes curiously as he set his eyes upon the blonde mystery that was Uzumaki Naruto. When he had first encountered the genin in the forbidden forest, he had been slightly impressed that the boy had been able to kill his summons with complete ease. Not only that, but he had formed an impressive tag team with the youngest Uchiha and managed to put him on the ropes. Now one month later, he had been surprised by the blonde, yet again, when he managed to learn to learn and apparently, master the incredibly difficult and complex Hiraishin no jutsu, the jutsu that earned the Yondaime his name of 'Yellow Flash'. He then proceeded to best a Hyuga in taijutsu, and utterly humiliate him. Not only that, but he managed to completely turn the tables on a jinchuriki, without using his own bijuu chakra.

Here was a dangerous combination of genius, power and skill, that too at such a young age. Even Itachi hadn't shown such abilities at this age, and that guy was right up there with Orochimaru and the Yondaime in terms of being a genius.

Right now, he curiously watched the interaction between his former sensei and the genin. Perhaps he was here to offer some help to the old fool?

Hiruzen almost sagged in relief that the Naruto beside him was just a clone. No matter how powerful and talented Naruto was for his age, he was not ready to deal with the likes of Orochimaru just yet. "So why are you here?"

The clone then pulled out a scroll and held it out to the old leader. "Prime sent me to give you this."

Hiruzen accepted the scroll with a raised eyebrow. Most probably, 'prime' was the original Naruto. "What is it?"

The clone smiled, "Some reinforcements, just in case. Use it only when things _really _get out of hand. Remember," he gave a look so serious that Hiruzen thought he might as well be looking at one of his senior jonin, "Prime is counting on you to use it, Hokage-sama. Don't disappoint him."

The clone then vanished in a poof of smoke, leaving an amused Hokage, despite the situation he was in. Tucking the scroll securely on his waist, he turned to his equally amused student. He settled into the Sarutobi clan's taijutsu stance. "Shall we begin then, my wayward student?"

XXXXXXX

Back down in the arena, it was a bloodbath. Suna and Oto shinobi were on the ground, either dead or knocked out. But mostly dead. Gai and Naruto had almost been like a force of hurricane. Gai had tore through the forces with his powerful taijutsu, breaking bones and ending lives with only one or two hits.

Naruto on the other hand, decided not to use the Hiraishin, instead choosing to rely on his flash step. With his tri-pronged kunai coated in wind chakra, combined with his speed, almost nobody escaped his slash. He also made full use of his ability of a slower perception. He was flash stepping across the whole arena so fast that even a blur was difficult to spot. In a single flash step, Naruto would sometimes slash two enemies simultaneously, ending their lives in an instant. In a few seconds, it would be all over and a new group of shinobi would enter the arena, only to suffer the same fate as their dead comrades.

"This is getting kind of boring…..," Naruto muttered as he ended the life of another Oto shinobi. This was the third batch he and Gai had taken care of, and Naruto was not impressed, at all. No shinobi was able to counter his speed; before they could even begin thinking of a counter, Naruto would catch them off-guard in their blind-spot and slash! Dead. Everyone moved almost painfully slow for him to kill. "I wonder if this is how dad felt, being the fastest man alive."

"Naruto!" Naruto turned around to catch the challenging grin of Gai-sensei. "How many?"

Naruto internally sighed at how hyper the man was. He really did not see how one could be so hyped after killing so many shinobi. Still, he would humor the guy. "Sixty-eight," he replied after going over it in his mind for a second.

The reaction from Gai caused him to flinch in alarm. Gai cried tears as he held up a fist, "OH! IT SEEMS I HAVE BEEN BESTED IN COUNT!"

Naruto looked at Gai as if he had started speaking Latin. Since when had this become a freaking competition?! He slowly started freaking out as Gai began to make absurd promises of how he would do 5000 push-ups if he lost again. If he couldn't do that, he would run 500 laps around the village on his hands. If he couldn't do that-

"Alright, that's enough Gai!" Kakashi's voice came as he jumped his way towards them. Kakashi landed right next to Naruto, who was blinking as if coming out of a trance. Kakashi gazed at Naruto with slight concern; working with Gai for the first time can be a bit overwhelming. He knew that from firsthand experience.

Leaning down a bit, he whispered in Naruto's ear, "You okay?"

That seemed to do the trick, as Naruto shook his head to clear it, probably from the excess youthfulness. "Thanks," he murmured, but quickly added, "But don't think we are good. I'm still upset with you."

Kakashi nodded to himself. He would have to correct his mistake with Naruto once this was all over. "We'll talk later then."

Naruto nodded, putting his kunai back in his pouch. "So what am I doing now?"

Kakashi first asked him, "Can you really handle the Ichibi as you are now? How much chakra have you left?"

Naruto chuckled and patted his stomach with a fist, "Don't underestimate me, Kakashi-sensei. I've yet to fully spend even a quarter of my total reserves. I will manage. Now where am I going?"

Kakashi smirked under his mask. _'He really does have ridiculous reserves of chakra,' _he mentally whistled. Outwardly, he spoke, "You are a sensor, right? Sasuke went in pursuit of the sand siblings, so as a backup, I sent Sakura and Shikamaru to track him down with the aid of my summon, Pakkun. Shikamaru probably had pursuers, so you'll meet him on your way to Sasuke. Meet up with him, track them down, and stop the Ichibi from rampaging the village."

Naruto nodded, "Roger that."

He placed two fingers on the ground and in just two seconds, he had the location of Shikamaru locked on his sensory radar. "Got you," he whispered. He stood up and leapt up to jump over the stadium wall.

Kakashi sighed and turned to Gai, who looked like he was about to burst with joy upon seeing Naruto go. Before he could open his mouth, Kakashi pointed behind him towards the oncoming shinobi. He rushed past him and killed the first sound ninja. "Concentrate Gai, otherwise you'll lose to me as well."

Probably one of his many bad ideas, but really, who was counting?

His instinct alerted him to something approaching at high speed, but not at him. It was approaching at the squad of enemy forces. He watched, fascinated, as a highly compressed ball of impacted right between the shinobi forces. It exploded with the compressed wind with great force, easily taking out seven of the enemy shinobi. Kakashi looked up with his sharingan to see Naruto standing on the wall, a smirk on his face. With a two-fingered salute, he was gone in a flash-step.

"YOSH! LET'S GO WITH OUR YOUTH AT FULL POWER!"

Yup, one of his bad ideas.

XXXXXXX

Shikamaru gulped down the water Asuma had offered him with greed. Dealing with the pursuers had been way too troublesome. Catching all eight of them with his shadow, then finding out that one ninja was still not within his grasp had almost led to his death. He had tried to find out the hiding spot of the ninth ninja before his chakra ran out, freeing the shinobi from his grasp. Alas, he was too late and almost killed, had it not been for Asuma-sensei's timely arrival.

Asuma had taken the ninth ninja out, preventing him from assisting his comrades. Then, he proceeded to help out Shikamaru by taking out the other eight ninjas in just a few seconds. Shikamaru just muttered 'troublesome' and just sat down to take a rest.

Asuma smiled at his student as he sat on a log. "For your first time in deep enemy territory, that was not so bad, Shika."

Shikamaru scowled at his sensei, "It would have been better if you had just done it without hiding like that. Exerting so much had been such a drag."

Asuma snorted, but accepted it in stride. He had learnt long ago that Shikamaru was smart, but lacked the motivation to actually use those smarts in battle. Both the student and the teacher were lost in their own thoughts until they heard the tell-tale sound of a kunai whizzing through the air. Asuma prepared to tackled whatever enemy was coming, but was confused when the kunai landed on the ground in front of them rather than being thrown at them. Asuma immediately understood, while Shikamaru relaxed.

A tri-pronged kunai.

As soon as the kunai was lodged on the ground right before them, Naruto appeared in a blue flash, his grasp already on the thrown kunai. Asuma couldn't help but be amazed every time he watched that jutsu in action. To able to travel from one point to another in an instant, so fast that your enemy doesn't even have time to react would be devastatingly useful.

Naruto pulled the kunai out of the ground and stood up. Once again, Asuma was astounded on seeing the similarities between Naruto and Namikaze Minato. The almost identical shade of hair, similar hairstyle same shade of the eyes, the similar shaping of the face and the same, deadly expression on the face. Shikamaru straightened up out of instinct, even if there was no enemy around. Naruto exuded a dangerous aura right now, an aura that made it clear just who was in command. Even in the presence of a jonin like Asuma, who had the most authority over Shikamaru, that aura was blazing like a star.

Naruto turned to Shikamaru, a serious expression on his face, "Shikamaru, you and Sakura were pursuing Sasuke, right?"

Shikamaru raised his hand and pointed behind him without a word, too bothered to even speak right now. Naruto nodded and made to move when Asuma's voice stopped him, "What's the situation back in the stadium, Naruto?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow but replied, "The ANBU have almost fully evacuated the civilians from the stadium and most likely, are in the process of escorting civilians all over the village to the shelters. Suna and Oto forces are swarming the stadium in groups. Me and Gai-sensei were taking out the forces until Kakashi-sensei switched with me and told me to pursue Sasuke. He said he had sent a team of Sakura and Shikamaru as backup incase things get bad for that impulsive idiot."

Asuma thought over it a bit and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Naruto frowned and and then lightened up, "Oh! And your old man is fighting Orochimaru inside a barrier!"

His reply had the predicted result as both Shikamaru's and Asuma's eyes widened in shock. "O-Orochimaru?" Wow, didn't know Shikamaru was capable of stuttering like Hinata.

Naruto turned to him, "I didn't hesitate, did I?"

He watched as Asuma's expression changed to reflect his thinking on this piece of news. Just when Naruto was about to say something to ease the man a bit, all of them felt it, even if Shikamaru didn't know what it was.

The unmistakable feeling of demonic chakra, washing over them like a wave of malice. Naruto mentally cursed, _'Shit! Things are getting serious on that end. I better get going!'_

Turning to Asuma, who was looking in the same direction with narrowed eyes, he quickly said, "Asuma-sensei! I better get going. I cannot afford to waste any more time here!"

Asuma's head snapped to Naruto, and it was a bit amusing to see the student and his sensei with identical expressions of disbelief. "Y-You surely don't mean you want to go over t-there, do you?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, causing Asuma to tense up a bit. He did not have time for this! "I have a way to stop whatever is going on over there. We can't afford to make things worse than they already are! I know what is going on, and I'm sure you do as well, Asuma-sensei. If you have a better option than fuinjutsu, I would be happy to hear it."

Asuma only looked at him with dead seriousness, "If you're sure about this."

As expected, Asuma did not have a reply for Naruto, nor did Shikamaru. Naruto nodded and turned to Shikamaru, "Hold out your arm."

Shikamaru blinked, "What for?"

Naruto sighed in annoyance, "I don't have time for this at all." He forcefully grabbed Shikamaru's wrist and released it after a moment. Shikamaru looked down and curiously enough, there was something imprinted on his wrist. A seal formula, to be precise.

He raised an eyebrow at Naruto. "I'm guessing this is your Hiraishin marking?"

Naruto nodded and started walking away from them. "If I find any one of ours in the way, I'll directly send them to you. It's best if you wait for five minutes before returning to the stadium, though."

Shikamaru could hold it no more. "Wait Naruto! You might be good, even jonin level maybe, but this is too much-"

Naruto was touched how much the shadow user cared about him but now was not the time. He waved a hand in his direction, not stopping from walking away. "I'll be fine, Shika. If you want, have Asuma-sensei tell you why only I can do this. I give my permission for you to tell him, Asuma-sensei. Either that, or you can wait for me to tell you. Just remember though, it's a secret. It stays a secret until I say so, got it?"

With a flash step, he was gone.

Jumping through the through the trees at a breakneck pace, he was just a blur to anyone saw him. He stopped though, when he saw an unconscious Shino on the ground. He jumped down, keeping an eye out for any enemies that might be waiting in an ambush. When he sensed none, he ran to the insect user to check his vitals.

'_Kakashi didn't mention he had sent Shino as well. He's mostly fine, even if his breathing is rather quick. Also, the body does not twitch like that when unconscious,' _he deduced. Looking around, he glanced over at Shino's opponent, a knocked out Kankuro.

He glanced back to Shino. More specifically, the back of his elbow which has a senbon sticking out of it. He deftly plucked out the senbon and threw it away. Knowing how Suna favored its puppets, there was a possibility that the senbon might have poison coated on it when it stuck Shino. _'Better send him to Shikamaru,' _he thought. He was about to send him through the Hiraishin when another thought struck him.

Asuma and Shikamaru don't know that Shino was poisoned. What now?

He stood up, carrying Shino in fireman style and vanished from the spot.

Shikamaru and Asuma were about to head back to the stadium when Naruto arrived in a sudden blue flash. They automatically jumped back, tensed up for a fight, relaxing only when they saw who it was. Asuma gave a sigh of relief, but Shikamaru grumbled, "I won't ever get used to that."

Naruto ignored that and handed Shino to Asuma, who asked, "What happened? I thought you were going after Gaara."

Naruto informed him, "Had to personally get him to you. Pretty sure he has been poisoned by the puppeteer. You should get him to the hospital as quickly as you can."

Asuma nodded, and as one, he and Shikamaru took to the trees, making haste on getting back. Naruto nodded as well and resumed on his way, making haste in response to the steadily growing aura of malice that the bijuu chakra created.

'**You didn't mention the puppeteer to them,' **Kurama stated curiously, referring to the fact Naruto prevented the capture of an enemy.

Naruto flippantly replied, "Gaara will thank me later for that." He knew he was getting closer. The burnt marks from Sasuke's fire style, the scratches on the trunks made by the claw that had formed on Gaara's body. However, it was a completely different story when he arrived at the scene. Crouching on a branch high above, he observed the scene carefully.

Sasuke was barely standing on his legs, no doubt having exhausted himself by using jutsu after jutsu. He also had the curse mark spread all over him, showing that he had run out of juice a while ago, and now was relying on the power from the curse mark. And even that looked like it was running out.

Sakura had been stuck onto a tree with sand, unconscious. But it seemed Gaara was not interested in her at all, so it was a bit better.

A few branches away, Temari looked to be a bit better, if not in a similar condition such as Sasuke. She was breathing heavily, probably from having to fight off Sasuke to allow Gaara more time to recover. But she was injured as well, if her holding her left side tenderly was any indication. He turned his attention to Gaara and had to stop himself from gaping.

Sand had fully covered his entire upper body, with only his feet remaining uncovered. His facial features had changed as well, becoming more animal like, and his eyes resembled to that of his tailed beast, with the same seal marking on his body that Naruto had seen on the arm in the stadium. Now both his hands looked like giant claws, and his tail had also gotten somewhat bigger.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, _'His transformation has progressed way more than I had anticipated. Taking him down in that form will be way more difficult than when he was only half covered with sand. But there has got to be __**something **__I can use. Some weakness __**has **__to be there in this form.'_

He critically examined Gaara's transformation, looking for a weak spot. _'Okay, His entire upper body is covered in sand, both back and front, which means it is useless to attack those areas. They are likely reinforced with dense sand to be more durable. His hands are a no-go, he would smack me away with those. There is no point in attacking from a blind spot using Hiraishin since he is a tail to take care of that. His speed, strength and durability has likely increased beyond what they previously were as well. But his legs…..they are uncovered. That is the only weak spot that I can see….Wait a second! His entire body above the origin point of his tail has been reinforced, but not below it!'_

A smirk graced his features. He had found the place he needed to attack. The whole thought process didn't take more than five seconds. His danger sense rang out, bringing him out of his thoughts. His eyes went wide when he saw that Gaara was attacking not Sasuke, but his own sister! He then noticed that the positions of both of them seemed wrong from what he had seen two minutes ago…..

'_That __**son of a bitch! **__He used Kawarimi to avoid Gaara's attack! And knowing Gaara, he may not even care who he's attacking as long as he gets his blood! Oh, I'll have your hide for this, you __**asshole!**__'_

Naruto was already moving from his spot, his danger sense slowing his perception to allow him to appropriately react.

Gaara was laughing madly as he jumped from his branch, claw outstretched to tear Uchiha Sasuke apart. He did not even stop in confusion when the Uchiha was suddenly replaced by his sister. It only meant more blood for his mother! And plus, she was also among those who caused him pain. He would kill her and bath in her blood!

Sasuke panted heavily as he knelt down on a knee. He had pulled the substitution off very close, and was running on fumes now. He felt a bit bad about using the girl as a replacement, but it eased him somewhat that Gaara was so clouded in his bloodlust that he failed to distinguish his enemy from his sister. One enemy less for him to deal with later, right?

Temari had never been so much terrified in her life as she saw Gaara racing towards her. She had been pushed aside by Gaara earlier when he began his fight with the Uchiha. She had hit a tree trunk and had probably cracked some ribs. Deciding that it was better to rest rather than interfere in Gaara's fight, she sat down on a branch. She was resting when she felt a pull and suddenly, she was facing Gaara who looked like he wanted to tear her apart.

It suddenly became clear to her. That bastard Uchiha had switched places with her! She was filled with grief that her life would end by her own little brother's hand and in his blood lusted state, he wouldn't even remember he killed his own sister.

As she had read about how in your last moments, your entire life flashes in front of your eyes. That is exactly what happened to her right now. The last thought before Gaara almost got to her was of a certain, blue-eyed blonde.

She closed her eyes tightly and waited for the pain to come. However, instead of pain, something suddenly grabbed her, causing her to open her eyes and involuntarily shriek in surprise. They _moved, _so fast that it was a blur and the next thing she knew, she was a safe distance away from Gaara.

"I never had any siblings, but what I do know is you never, _ever, _attack your sister like that." The voice was almost _shaking _with rage. Her eyes shot open and she finally got a good look at her savior.

Naruto had an expression of dead seriousness on his face as he looked at Gaara, with Temari in his hands. Never had he felt such cold fury before. First, the asshole he called a teammate had the _nerve _to substitute with Temari, and make her own brother kill her. Then, Gaara has the gall to almost kill his sister in cold blood. Rest assured, he would get his payback on Gaara right now.

Sasuke would have to wait.

Temari felt her face getting warmer as she found out that Naruto was carrying her bridal style. His right hand was behind her shoulders, clutching her so that her face was right next to his chest. His left hand was supporting her legs from behind her knees. She tried to move around a bit, try to get him to drop her, but he took at as a sign of her being uncomfortable, and therefore readjusted her in his arms.

Gaara grinned a maniac's grin, **"Uzumaki Naruto. She was one of those who caused me pain. Tell me, why shouldn't I kill her?!"**

Temari grimaced as Naruto tightened his hold on her at Gaara's response almost protectively and dare she think it, possessively. Naruto turned to Sasuke, who was watching him with wide eyes of shock. "Sasuke, I'll leave you to handle him for a few more moments. It's your fight, isn't it? Try not to lose until I return."

In a flash step, he was gone. Sasuke gaped at the scene with total shock and disbelief. He just couldn't believe Naruto's speed. Gaara was an arm length away from tearing the girl to pieces when she had suddenly disappeared. Even Sasuke with his sharingan had only caught a blonde blur. When the blur had settled down on a branch, he got his first good look at who it was. And he was blown away.

Naruto had not only tracked him down, but had gotten here in just enough time to save the enemy from Gaara? Why would he want to save the enemy? It just didn't make sense for him.

Then Naruto told him to hang in here until he gets the girl to a safe place?! Just whose side is he on anyway?! Can't he see how he was running empty here.

He turned back to Gaara. No use complaining now. He would just have to wait until Naruto got here. He hated to admit it, but Gaara was on a totally different level than him. His fire style was useless, his taijutsu was null against the transformed Gaara, and the sand monster was unusually strong to have tanked his chidori. The bastard had forced him to use it three times, while his limit was only two.

Speaking of Gaara, his chakra had become a crushing, malicious force. If Sasuke hadn't felt it before, he would have been frozen in fear. As it was, he had felt a similar chakra from Naruto back in wave, when he had shielded Naruto from the ice senbon. Did that mean Naruto was somehow related to Gaara, since their chakra had some similarities?

He shook his head. Now was not the time to delve into chakra theory. He was almost completely out of chakra, so he could no longer attack effectively. He would have to stall Gaara long enough for Naruto to return.

Naruto had handled Gaara with relative ease, but he doubted Naruto could handle Gaara when he was like this.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had tree hopped until they were a good distance away from the fight. A hand came to rest on his chest. "My side," Temari whispered with an expression of pain.

Naruto blinked and then grimaced. "Sorry," he whispered back, loosening his hold a bit. Once he was sure that they were almost a mile away from the fight, he jumped back to the ground and settled Temari at the base of a tree.

Temari shifted until the weight was off her left side and relaxed a bit. Looking up at Naruto, she almost expected him to finish her off. But instead, she found him looking at her with concern. As if killing her was the last thought on his mind.

"Are you alright?"

Temari frowned suspiciously at him. "You won't be killing me?"

To her surprise, Naruto snorted and knelt down beside her. "What makes you think I want to kill you?"

Temari tilted her head with narrowed eyes, "The fact that I'm your enemy."

Seeing that Temari still refused to drop her guard around him, he sighed and said softly, "Temari, I…I can never bring myself to kill you."

Temari's eyes softened as she easily heard the genuine truth in that statement. Naruto wanted to grasp her hand to comfort her, to feel her comfort, but he was on a tight schedule.

"Temari," he called her. When he had her attention, he said, "You know that I need to stop Gaara. He's your village's jinchuriki, so you guys must know of a way to stop him from going on a rampage. I need to know what it is."

Temari shook her head, "You can't! It's a tailed beast, a demon of epic proportions, nothing can stop it! It's impossible!"

Naruto smirked softly and flicked her nose playfully. He grinned as a surprised blush came over her face as she rubbed it, "I'll have you know that a word like that doesn't exist for me. That's a word for people who have run out of ideas."

The temporary playful mood once again turned somber as Naruto whispered. "No way, you say?"

He then stood up, looking in the direction of the fight. He sighed with resignation as his dead expression came over his face, "Then I have no option left."

Temari's head shot up at that statement, eyes wide with terror. Her hand shot out to grasp Naruto's, who turned to look at her with a quizzical expression. "What?"

Temari felt tears pricking her eyes, and as much as she tried to stop them, they flowed out anyway. "If you are going to stop him, don't kill him, _please_. He's my brother," she pleaded with tears flowing down her face. Even if Gaara was homicidal, he was her little brother. She couldn't bear the thought of him dying, at someone like Naruto's hand no less.

Naruto's expression softened at her tears. There was no way he could leave her like this. He knelt down once again and with the thumb of his other hand, he softly wiped her tears away, "Please don't cry, hime. It's so difficult for me to see you like this. And whenever did I say that I was going to kill him?"

Temari did not protest at all as Naruto wiped her tears away. She could use a bit of some external comfort. She felt herself calm down a bit as Naruto rubbed her hand tenderly. Naruto wiped all her tears away and brought up their joint hands. "I promise you, Temari. Gaara won't die today."

Kissing her hand once, he got up and turned away. In a stronger voice, he announced, "I'll just smack some sense into him is all."

He was gone in a blue flash. Temari stared at the spot before shaking her head with a small smile. She reached into her hip pouch and took out some medical supplies. As she tended to her side, she muttered with a fond smile, "Baka."

She wholeheartedly believed Naruto would stop her brother without killing her.

XXXXXXX

Naruto flashed back to the tree he had put his mark on. He took stock of the situation and nodded, satisfied. His teammate had managed to survive against Gaara in his absence.

Sasuke frantically dodged Gaara's sand claw. Just where was Naruto?! Gaara screamed, **"WHY ARE YOU RUNNING, UCHIHA SASUKE?! COME FACE ME!"**

Sasuke was about to snap back a reply when another voice called, "How about resuming our fight from earlier, Gaara?"

Both Gaara and Sasuke turned towards the direction of the voice. Sasuke released a long breath of relief while Gaara seemed to get pumped up even more. There was Naruto, standing on a branch with one hand by his side and the other twirling a tri-pronged kunai by its ring. A confident smirk graced his features as he looked Gaara in the eye, not at all unnerved by his toothy grin.

Gaara said in a low voice, **"Excellent suggestion, Uzumaki Naruto. Let's make each other FEEL ALIVE!"**

The last part was shouted in glee as he prepared to attack. Naruto's expression turned serious, and he turned to Sasuke. Sasuke immediately straightened up from the look, though he didn't know why.

"Get out of here and to a safe distance Sasuke, and keep Sakura safe while you're at it. I doubt you can fight any more in your current condition." That was all he said before turning his attention back to Gaara. Sasuke wanted to snap at him for dismissing him like that, but he was smart enough to not do that in the middle of such a fight.

Ever since he had begun fighting Gaara, he felt that somehow, Gaara was growing stronger in their fight. He seemed to have a crap ton of chakra like Naruto, while Sasuke had steadily run out of chakra in their fight. Even chidori had been useless as for it to work, you had to be extremely fast, faster than your opponent and catch him off-guard. One of those conditions was sadly, negated. Partially due to his own stupid bravado of wanting to face Gaara in the open. Also, Sasuke had struck only sand, which had reformed, causing no real damage to Gaara

He was more than glad to let Naruto take over. Retreating to a safe distance, he settled to observe Naruto fight.

Naruto jammed the kunai in his hand on the branch he was standing on. He put his hands in both of his pouches and in three quick draws, he scattered all the remaining Hiraishin kunai all over the area. Gaara seemed unaffected by this development, while Sasuke was closely examining one of the kunai that had lodged right in front of him. Was this the reason Naruto was able to get from one place to another in almost an instant?

He looked around, and upon seeing Naruto was concentrating on Gaara, he deftly took the lodged kunai out and put it in his pouch. He would examine it later.

Naruto pulled out the kunai he had jammed near him and took a stance. He already had set up his field, all he had to do was get Gaara into position. He channeled wind chakra into his kunai and jumped at Gaara, deliberately going slow enough so Gaara would be able to aim his attack at him. Sure enough, Gaara did exactly as he wanted him to.

"**Suna Shuriken!" **A hail of shuriken made of sand came racing towards him while he was in mid-air. He flashed to one of his kunai at the last second, right above Gaara. The sand shuriken completely missed their targets, crashing into some trees behind where Naruto was standing.

Gaara looked around, trying to find out where Naruto had vanished to. "Oi!" The call made him look upwards, where Naruto was crouched upside-down. He waved cheekily at Gaara before vanishing once again.

This time, he appeared right in front of Gaara, who snarled and made a hand sign. Multiple mouths appeared all over his body, which took a deep breath as one. **"Fuuton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa!" **(Wind style: Infinite sand dust storm)

A huge dust storm blew towards Naruto, who simply flashed to another kunai, which was on a tree behind Gaara. Gaara grit his teeth and once again looked around to find Naruto.

"Are you that incompetent? You can't even catch me with your eyes, let alone your jutsu."

Gaara whipped around and sure enough, Naruto was standing on a branch with a taunting grin. Gaara's tolerance finally snapped. He was used to playing around with his stronger opponents before crushing them to death. But this time, his opponent was playing with him and was brave enough to taunt him? He would show him just who he was messing with!

With a roar, he jumped towards Naruto with the intent of tearing him into pieces right where he was standing. Naruto grinned; Gaara was so easy to rile up. Jamming his kunai on the ground between his legs, he feel into a stance as if preparing to tackle Gaara. Just when Gaara's claw was about to make contact with his face, he flashed to another kunai, away from Gaara.

Sasuke watched with awe and jealousy as Naruto neatly avoided all of Gaara's attacks, looking at complete ease. It seemed that the seal on the kunai was some sort of beacon for Naruto to flash to. Whatever it was, Sasuke was sure to crack it later for himself. If he could learn the secrets of that kunai, he would be able to fight on par with Naruto. Turning his attention back to the fight, Naruto seemed to be waiting for Gaara to some into a specific position, and if Sasuke knew one thing about his teammate, it was that Naruto was a master at setting traps up.

He watched with anticipation as Gaara snapped and bodily rushed at Naruto, intent on crushing him by himself. Naruto dropped the kunai and looked as if he was preparing to engage Gaara hand to hand. At the last second, he flashed to one of his kunai, neatly dodging Gaara's attack. Just what was the blonde planning?

Naruto smirked as Gaara released a roar of frustration as he once again missed him. He took out a regular kunai, wrapping a regular explosive tag around it. After all, he only wanted to weaken his armor. He made a promise to Temari to not kill her brother. He would be breaking that promise if he blew Gaara's ass to chunks with one of his own tags.

_Nasty._

Anyways, he flashed back, this time, right behind Gaara. Without waiting for his tail to react, Naruto jabbed the kunai on a spot right below his tail. "Right here!"

Gaara reacted to the poke first, then the voice. As soon as he heard the voice, he immediately swung his tail to smack Naruto away, but Naruto was no longer there.

Naruto had flashed to a kunai a few trees away, grinning at the blast that covered Gaara. He felt Sasuke land beside him, saying in disbelief, "You poked him in the ass…..with an explosive kunai?"

Naruto scowled and turned to him, "It worked, didn't it? I don't see why you are complaining." He then turned around, looking at the giant remnant of a sand claw grabbing Sakura in what looked to be a very painful hold. He stepped to the claw and placed a palm against it. Yep, it was rock solid.

To Sasuke's amazement, Naruto seemed to channel _red lightning _onto the sandy rock. He was about to stop him, telling him that he might hit Sakura with her lightning, when cracks appeared in the claw around Sakura. It then shattered, freeing Sakura. Naruto caught her before she could faceplant on the branch. He handed her to an open mouthed Sasuke. "H-How did you that?"

Naruto waved a hand, "Not the time, Sasuke. Maybe later." He then flashed away to a kunai that was on the tree right before the one on which the explosion occurred. He whistled, thoroughly impressed at the results of the explosion.

The _entire right half _of Gaara's armor had collapsed, and the other half was barely holding on. Naruto wasted no time in seizing this chance. Ever since he arrived in this area, he had dispersed a moderate amount his own chakra in the air. Grasping that chakra, he entirely converted it to water. Dog-tiger; _'Suiton: Dai Suigadan no jutsu!' _(Water style: Great water fang projectile)

Just as it had happened with Jiraiya, a huge spinning drill of water took form behind Naruto, going above him and rushing down towards a dumbstruck Gaara. He was so focused on recovering and reforming his armor that the water drill had caught him completely off-guard.

He couldn't even move when the drill crashed into him right into his stomach, with brutal force. To Naruto's immense satisfaction, Gaara impacted the ground with such force, that when the drill finally dispersed, Gaara had been buried into the ground in a crater that was shaped like his own body. All the sand that had been reformed had dispersed from his body, even the sand that was left after the explosion. The only thing that indicated that Gaara was still using his bijuu chakra were his eyes.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, and the kanji for the Five Elements seal once again formed on his fingertips. He dropped down from the branch, hand once again outstretched.

Gaara was angry and confused. Uzumaki had once again put his sand out of commission. He was now dropping from the branch, heading towards him with his hand outstretched and his fingertips glowing.

His mother was shouting in his head to do something. **'Gaara! I want him dead! Use my power, and crush him for good! Give me his blood!' **

All the stress, attacks from Naruto, his failed attempts to draw blood and patience going towards negative finally did it for Gaara. **"I…..I WON'T LOSE TO YOU, UZUMAKI NARUTO!"**

Naruto was within five meters from Gaara's now exposed stomach when his danger sense rang haywire. He instinctively flashed to the farthest kunai, which surprisingly turned out to be Temari. Temari jumped when Naruto suddenly appeared beside her. She put a hand on her chest, heart pumping wildly, "You really shouldn't startle people like that."

Naruto shot back, "That's the only purpose I do it. What are you doing here anyways? I thought you were injured." His gaze turned quizzical.

Temari folded her arms, "I was able to heal myself with the medical supplies I had and what little I knew of medical jutsu." Truthfully speaking, she was downright impressed with the way Naruto had handled Gaara. Not many knew of the weak spot Naruto had chosen to exploit. Most of the times, they were busy escaping Gaara's attempts to kill them. Naruto had not only bested Gaara's attacks, but had managed to corner him twice.

Naruto nodded and turned back where Gaara was. It seemed he had flashed for good reason, for Gaara was no longer there. In his place, a huge raccoon made of sand stood, towering clear above the forest. They seemed like ants in its comparison. A huge amount of chakra had been molded, right before Naruto had flashed away.

Naruto stared at the one-tailed tanuki with unusually grave eyes. "This is quite bad…" he muttered.

Temari gave him a look like he had lost his mind, "Quite?! This is very, very bad! You can't stop him when he goes into this form!"

Suddenly, Naruto turned around and blocked a shuriken that was meant for Temari. Sasuke appeared one branch away, clearly angry. "What are you doing, Naruto?! She is the enemy!"

Naruto held a hand to calm the avenger down. "She isn't our enemy anymore, Sasuke. Don't attack her."

Sasuke's expression turned confused, "What do you mean?"

Naruto then tilted his head towards the giant tanuki, "We have bigger problems to deal with, that's why."

Sasuke grit his teeth and angrily gestured to the tanuki, "How the hell are you going to stop that?!"

Naruto then turned away and looked up, all three of them tensing when he saw its head turning to face them. He quickly said, "Both of you, get away from here as far and as fast as you can!"

Temari spoke the question before Sasuke did, "What about you?!"

Naruto gave her a discreet wink, whispering, "Trust me." Out loud, he spoke, "I have a plan. Now go!"

Sasuke looked reluctant to leave Naruto behind, so did Temari. But they still followed his command. Sasuke turned around and tree hopped away, Sakura safe in his arms. Temari was about to go as well when Naruto whispered to her, "Keep a safe distance from Sasuke. Even though I told him not to attack you, he still might do it."

Temari nodded and was about to jump when she noticed she couldn't move. Naruto and her both looked down in horror to see both of their feet stuck in sand, with the sand crawling up their bodies.

Naruto acted on instinct. He quickly put a hand on Temari's back and sent her to the farthest point he could, which he sensed was moving away?

He had no time to ponder on that because he was completely covered by sand.

Gaara watched in his bijuu form from above as he finally had Uzumaki Naruto in has grasp and this time, there was no escape. He clutched his claw into a fist.** "Sabaku Kyu!" **(Sand Coffin)

Usually when he used the desert coffin, blood would explode outwards, along with the muscles and organs. It always gave Gaara great pleasure to use it. But this time, instead of blood, only smoke seemed to come out.

Gaara was confused. Why did smoke come out?

Temari had been utterly surprised when one moment, she was standing beside Naruto, her feet stuck in sand. The next moment, she had suddenly appeared mid-air beside Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke was equally surprised, and nearly lost his footing on the next branch. Temari was barely able to land on her legs, let alone make a graceful landing.

Temari was not so surprised, since she had witnessed Naruto send Shikamaru down for their fight the same way, using Hiraishin. Sasuke on the other hand, was stunned on a much higher level. _'He can even send people through that jutsu?! If he sent her here, does he know that I have one of his kunai?'_

"Did Naruto send you?"

Temari looked at Sasuke and scowled. For some reason, she hated that bastard. "Yeah, he did." However, all her breath left her lungs when she heard the gravelly voice of Gaara, amplified in his bijuu form.

"**Sabaku Kyu!"**

'_No,' _Temari thought with eyes full of terror as she turned back to the area of the fight. She almost expected Naruto to flash beside her, easily avoiding the one-hit kill. Seconds trickled by, and the blood fully drained from her face.

Gaara had killed Naruto.

Sasuke froze on the branch for a completely different reason. While he had undoubtedly displayed potent jealousy towards Naruto for having techniques far superior to his own, he still considered Naruto his comrade, and Naruto was the closest thing to a friend that Sasuke had. Back in the stadium, is thoughts had been clouded with hatred and jealousy. But while fighting Gaara, the cloud had somewhat shifted, and he had gained respect for the blonde to handle Gaara the way he did. Naruto may have been a genius, but that alone doesn't make you powerful. Sasuke trained his ass off daily to get stronger. For Naruto to be this strong, he must have worked way harder than him. Which meant only one thing.

Sasuke would do anything he could to catch up to Naruto. _Anything._

But witnessing the death of that comrade made him reflect back to their bell test. Kakashi had told them that people who broke the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum. He had abandoned Naruto to face his death, even if the blonde had told him to go himself.

Itachi had abandoned the entire leaf and by extension, his comrades. Sasuke had abandoned his comrade. Oh god, did that mean they were the same?

Before more horror could fill his being, a scream of horror from Temari snapped him out of his thoughts.

"NARUTO!"

Temari wanted to deny all of it. She wanted to deny that Naruto had fallen prey to Gaara's sand, but the truth was right in front of her, as if mocking her for not being able to do anything. She had these strange feelings growing inside her ever since she started meeting Naruto in the week before the exams. Feelings that she couldn't make any sense out of. She didn't meet him just because she wanted to learn his secrets for her village, no. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. He had become a sort companion that she never wanted to let go of, but reality struck hard.

"NARUTO!"

Suddenly, a _huge _amount of smoke appeared before them, causing both of them to gape. The amount of smoke released was large, easily large enough that it could cover the giant tanuki. Only, it wasn't a tanuki that emerged from the smoke.

XXXXXXX

Naruto barely been able to make a shadow clone in time. However, he did it so fast that he doubted someone could have seen him doing it, even if they were standing in front of him.

He had created the shadow clone with specific orders in mind. As soon as the clone flickered into existence, it vanished from its spot near instantaneously, flash stepping behind a tree. Then, it substituted with the prime, taking his place inside the the coffin. It grinned when he thought what Gaara's reaction would be when he saw that prime had managed to escape. It was its last thought before dispelling into smoke.

Behind a tree, Naruto was preparing his next technique. It was the only one he could think of that could deal with Gaara's current form and hopefully, it would be one of the last he would ever have to use against Gaara.

Cutting his left thumb, he swiped it against his right palm. Boar-dog-bird-monkey-ram. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Before the exam, he had calculated that he required exactly a quarter of his reserves to summon Takeshi. However, after Kurama had increased his reserves, the amount had dropped significantly. The quarter of his previous amount of reserves that he previously required had now become two-thirds of the same quarter, which meant an entire one-sixth of his reserves. Of course, Naruto had roughly estimated this with Kurama's help.

In a huge blast of smoke, Naruto towered above the tree line, easily standing a head above the tanuki on top of Takeshi's head. He had his arms crossed as he looked down on Shukaku's form. It gave him a sense of authority, of power.

Takeshi blinked as he appeared with his arms crossed. He quickly deduced that Naruto had summoned him. **"Ah, it seems you require my assistance, Naruto."**

Naruto lightly laughed on top of Takeshi's head, "Very acute observation, Takeshi-san."

Takeshi chuckled at his summoner's cheek before turning a serious, yet still a bit amused eye forward. **"Ichibi no Shukaku, huh? You sure do have an eye for strong opponents, Naruto. This might turn out to be a good fight after all," **Takeshi grinned, his sharp teeth menacingly coming into view as he grasped the katana strapped onto the left side of his waist in anticipation.

Naruto nodded and explained his plan to the boss of the foxes. "Right now, the jinchuriki is in the final state of his transformation, but still in control. Our goal is to influence him enough that he would relish the control over to the tailed beast via falling asleep. Once Shukaku's consciousness is in control, I want you to hold him in one place while I wake up the host. Once Gaara is awake, I will slap a seal onto him that will cut him off from his tailed beast."

Takeshi listened carefully to Naruto's plan, and nodded in agreement. He couldn't help but comment, however, **"Fighting an opponent like Shukaku at their strongest? You really know how to bring excitement into a fight, Naruto."**

Takeshi was clearly excited to fight. He did not wait for his opponent to make his move. Naruto was glad he had stuck to Takeshi's head using his chakra, otherwise he would have fallen backwards on his butt.

Just as Takeshi came within striking distance, Gaara reacted. Shukaku's arm came forward to grab Takeshi's throat, but he wasn't fast enough. Instead of dodging the arm, Takeshi unsheathed his katana and in one clean stroke, Gaara's entire right arm came straight off.

XXXXXXX

Temari stared in amazement at what Naruto had managed to pull out of his sleeve this time. It was a humongous, dark blue fox in a white haori, with _seven _tails swaying behind magnificently. And it was large enough to tower over the tanuki.

"W-What is that?" She uttered in disbelief. Was it one of Naruto's summons?

Sasuke was in a similar state. He was at a loss of words for this….whatever Naruto had managed to pull off. But whatever it was, it was superior to even the tanuki in size. It was clearly very strong. The seven swaying tails had fully thrown him off.

With the exchange of words that followed, Sasuke was able to deduce that this was a summon, which meant that Naruto was the holder of a summoning contract. He couldn't hear what Naruto said, but it was clearly a signal to start fighting.

Both Sasuke and Temari then proceeded to watch, utterly dumbstruck and stupefied, the giant blue fox cleanly cut one of Gaara's arms.

XXXXXXX

Takeshi skidded away, destroying a group of trees in his wake and not even noticing. His eyes narrowed as he clutched his blade tightly. **"His body is denser than I had thought. I nearly lost the grip of my blade," **he said as he put the katana back in its sheath. **"We'll have to be more careful now. This should be provocation enough for him to let Shukaku out. Get ready, Naruto!"**

"Yeah!" Naruto nodded and braced himself. He carefully watched Gaara as he slowly reattached his arm. Once he had done so, he turned his head towards them.

"**Interesting," **he rumbled, causing both Takeshi and Naruto to tense, **"HOW INTERESTING, UZUMAKI NARUTO!"**

They watched as Gaara came out of the giant tanuki's head in a ripple, his eyes completely white. Naruto supposed that was because his sight was in the tanuki's eyes. He was slumped, but slowly straightened up. Naruto was further on guard when he saw Gaara smiling a little. He knew what came next, but no matter how many times he saw Gaara smile, it was always unnerving.

"**You are strong, Uzumaki," **Gaara said, and Naruto could hear anticipation in his voice. **"You have matched my every attack with yours, and were able to overpower me, if only for a little while. I HAVEN'T HAD THIS MUCH FUN IN ALL MY LIFE!" **

The last shout caused Naruto to feel a bit sad inside. He couldn't help but reflect, that this was how he could have ended up. Gaara had been alienated most of his life. He could see that only Temari had attempted to make Gaara feel as close to family as possible, but he had ruthlessly pushed her away. They say that you can learn a lot about a person from fighting them, and it was true. Naruto had seen how Gaara fought; Gaara only fought for himself. He thought that he had no precious people of his own.

Well, Naruto was about to give him a smackdown for free, in addition to a reality check.

Gaara formed the ram seal. **"As my gratitude towards you for keeping me entertained, I'll let you see the full power of the sand incarnation."**

"**Feigning sleep jutsu!"**

For a moment, Gaara remained frozen in that pose, mad eyes glaring into Naruto's prepared ones. And then….he sagged, arms hanging limply as his head fell forward.

"Here we go, Takeshi-san," Naruto whispered to the fox, who hummed low in agreement.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke shivered with a little fear. This wasn't the first time he had watched his teammate take on a stronger opponent than any of them, while he just cowered in the background. Looking up at Gaara's form, he took back his words. Gaara had _a lot more _chakra than what he estimated. To have enough chakra to form a construct like that….he doubted even Naruto had that much chakra.

Temari watched fearfully as Naruto tackled Gaara at his strongest. As confident as Naruto seemed, she doubted he could scrape victory when Gaara let Shukaku out to fight. But Naruto looked so sure of his victory, like he knew exactly what to do, that Temari simply had to trust he knew what he was doing. She couldn't bear to loose both Naruto and Gaara in the same day.

XXXXXXX

"**YAHOO! FINALLY, I AM OUT AND FREE!" **The one-tailed monster opened its enormous jaw, and the high, crazy voice surprised Naruto a bit. He had been imagining a voice similar to Kurama's.

Shukaku looked in front of him and cheered, coiling in preparation for an attack, **"Oh! A guy for me to kill already! And it looks like you're related to that asshole kyuubi! I'll make mincemeat out of you!"**

Naruto winced as Kurama roared in rage inside him. He really couldn't be sure if Shukaku was referring to him or Takeshi.

Probably Takeshi. You know, because of his tails.

Takeshi gave a challenging grin full of teeth. **"Why don't you put those words to test! Let's see how far you can get!"**

Shukaku slapped his large, bloated stomach. **"FUUTON: RENKUDAN!" **

A bullet of air so compressed and pressurized came shooting towards Takeshi, who surprised both Naruto and Shukaku when he deftly used one of his tails to smack away the air bullet at just the right angle. He just shifted its direction a bit, so instead of damaging the landscape, it went flying into the sky behind him.

"**My turn," **Takeshi grinned before performing three hand seals, ending on tiger. He took a deep breath, **"Katon: Goen no jutsu!" **(Fire style: Great Flame technique)

An enormous vortex of rapidly expanding flames expelled from his mouth and rushed towards Shukaku. The heat from the flames was so hot that even Naruto, who was standing behind the wall of fire felt it. The entire land of forest beneath the majestic flame was scorched to ashes. Naruto was willing to bet that the fire was hot enough to turn Shukaku's sand to glass.

Shukaku, as soon as he saw the herculean fire heading towards him, erected a huge wall of sand with his hand. He would have dodged it normally, but because of his huge bulk, he was slow to put himself to motion. It was better to have a hand turned to glass rather than any other part of his body.

The flames hit the wall of sand, and for a full five seconds, Takeshi kept pumping chakra into his fire, making it hotter in each second. When he finally released the jutsu, both Naruto and Takeshi grinned at the results.

XXXXXXX

Temari gaped in speechlessness as the wall that Shukaku had erected with his hand had completely melted into hot, molten liquid. The amount of firepower that summon seemed to have was completely absurd and ridiculous.

Sasuke was also dumbstruck at the new development. The heat from the summon's fire had been hot enough to be felt way over where they were standing. He had seen what had happened to the forest _beneath _it, and he almost felt bad for anything standing _in front _of it.

XXXXXXX

Shukaku winced as he saw his entire hand was now molten sand, which was slowly melting from the solid shape that he had formed it into. However, before he could do anything about it, he heard another shout.

"**FUUTON: KAMIKAZE!" **(Wind style: Divine Wind)

A huge amount of wind was expelled from Takeshi's mouth. It had no shape, it simply was wind blowing at great speeds. Since the sand construct was still melting, Shukaku didn't have enough time to detach himself from it. Takeshi took full advantage of it and chose to cool down the molten sand, transforming it into glass. Shukaku looked at his hand in disbelief. His whole right arm, that was still attached to his body, had become solid glass. It was rather surreal to see.

Takeshi laughed, **"Make mincemeat out of me?! Take a look at yourself first!"**

And with speed that even Naruto did not expect from him, he shot forward in three quick strides. Naruto was stunned just how quickly Takeshi was able move. However, his next choice of attack almost had Naruto jumping in joy.

Takeshi had reared back his fist and punched right at the strange-shaped, wall of glass. Shukaku had no choice but to block the punch with his now, wall of glass, formerly wall of sand. If he could get rid of the glass, he could form a new hand then. Then, he would kill this blasted fox.

The glass shattered like, well, glass. It shattered into pieces; the part of the arm that had become glass was almost up to his shoulder. So almost the entire arm shattered under the tremendous force of Takeshi's punch.

Shukaku was now visibly panicking. He swung his good left arm, claws outstretched to swipe Takeshi's head off, but Takeshi was quick to counter. Takeshi grabbed the left arm with his right, followed by grabbing the swinging tail that came from Shukaku's right. Takeshi held them in a strong grip, not allowing Shukaku any chance to attack.

Well, if you don't count the regenerating arm and the purple ball of no doubt, highly destructive chakra that was forming in front of Shukaku's mouth, aimed right onto Takeshi's alarmed face.

"**DO IT NOW, NARUTO! YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO BE AT THE OTHER END OF **_**THAT **_**THING!" **

Takeshi's warning had a high amount of urgency in it, and Naruto did _not _want to find out what that ball of chakra did, so he didn't hesitate to act. He directed his chakra into his legs and jumped high. With a grunt, he threw the kunai downwards, aiming it so it lodged right in front of an asleep Gaara.

As expected, Gaara's sand came up to catch the kunai, but it was of no consequence. Naruto flashed right in front of Gaara, already in motion of an attack. He caught Gaara's jaw in an earth shattering right hook, which had so much force behind it that it not only sent Gaara leaning towards his own right, but also knocked a tooth out of his mouth.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

The punch sent waves of pain to Gaara's brain, forcing him to wake up. His eyes flew open in agony, just as Naruto sensed the big ball of chakra harmlessly dispelling behind him. Shukaku's yell soon followed, **"NO! I JUST CAME OUT!"**

Gaara was now wide awake, but Naruto gave him no chance to attack him with his sand. He used his left and to roughly grab Gaara by his throat, bringing his face level to his. His fingertips of the right hand lit up in the Gogyo Fuin (Five Elements seal) for the third time in the day. He slapped them right onto Gaara's exposed stomach, the usage of chakra making his seal visible.

Gaara gasped as all the breath left him, and he momentarily became unconscious. Naruto had successfully managed to cut Shukaku off from Gaara's conscious. The sand form beneath them began to crumble, and just in seconds, the entire body of sand collapsed, making them plummet to earth.

Naruto and Gaara would have hit the ground with bone-breaking force, if Naruto hadn't managed to grab Gaara mid-air and flash to a kunai on the ground. He carefully set Gaara against a tree, and was slightly taken aback when Gaara started to stir.

He himself had needed a day to wake up when Orochimaru had slapped him with the same seal. Perhaps it was that due to Gaara's stronger connection to Shukaku, he already had large amounts of bijuu chakra in his system which helped him wake?

Naruto stood over Gaara as the redhead fully opened his eyes. Looking disoriented for a second, his eyes widened as he saw Naruto standing over him with an expressionless look on his face.

He tried to shift further into the tree. "No, stay away from me!" he cried weakly, far too weak to try and move his body. He watched with pure fear as Naruto knelt down.

Naruto softened the look on his face. "That pain…..of being alone, of your life not meaning anything to anyone…..I know that pain all too well, Gaara."

Gaara whispered in confusion, "H-How?"

Naruto's lips twisted into a sad smile, "Because we are alike. I also house a beast like yours."

Gaara's confused expression twisted into one of shock. "Then, for all those people, why….?"

Naruto put a hand on Gaara's tuft of hair, "Because I found people to care for, to protect…..who loved me and acknowledged my existence. Those people told me as many times I needed to hear….that they loved me. They told me that my purpose in this world was to protect. True power doesn't come from fighting for yourself. It comes when you have someone of your own to protect. Gaara," he ruffled the red hair, "You have people like that too. If you'd just give them a chance, they would accept you. If you want, I'll be your first friend!"

Gaara was unable to answer, just staring at Naruto with wide eyes. Naruto chuckled and removed his hand, standing up. They were here anyways.

Temari and Kankuro appeared just beside Gaara. The difference was that Kankuro was injured, and still on guard when standing in front of Naruto. He looked at Naruto with a wary expression, knowing that he stood no chance against a guy who still didn't look that exhausted after outright crushing Gaara.

Temari on the other hand, just stared at Naruto with wide eyes. He had delivered on his promise. He had stopped Gaara without killing him. And she was grateful to him for that. Naruto looked at her and winked.

"I promised you, didn't I?"

Temari smiled softly and nodded. She was grateful that Gaara hadn't been killed, along with the fact that Gaara hadn't managed to kill Naruto. She didn't know if she could ever repay Naruto for what he had done for her. A hand brushed against her leg, causing her to look down.

"Temari, Kankuro. That's enough, let's go home," Gaara ordered weakly. Kankuro gave a confused look to Temari, who just nodded to comply with the request. He picked Gaara up, supporting him with one hand around his waist and the other holding Gaara's over his shoulder.

"Kankuro," Temari said, causing the puppeteer to look at her, "Take Gaara and move. I'll catch up." She did not once break eye contact with Naruto.

Kankuro gave her a confused look, "But Temari-"

"Go, I said!"

Kankuro looked reluctant to leave her behind, but obeyed her nonetheless. He took to the trees and in a few moments, they were just a dot in the distance. No doubt, Kankuro would wait ahead for her to catch up, but he knew when Temari wanted him to be out of sight, and he wasn't stupid enough to disobey her.

Naruto just kept his hands in his pockets as Temari stepped closer. Somehow, he wasn't surprised at at all when Temari suddenly grabbed him in a tight hug, her hands going around his waist and her head buried in his chest.

"Thank you, thank you," she was sobbing in his chest. Naruto slowly wrapped his own arms around her shoulders. He kissed her head softly, stroking her hair.

"It's okay," he whispered. He really didn't know what else he could do.

Temari tightened her hold on him, "Why would you go so far for him?!"

Naruto breathed deeply, trying to decide what to say. "He and I….we're not much different. We both share a burden, and we both have been alone in our lives. Me not as much as him. I just couldn't bear to look at him like he was. He is what I would have been if I had no people of my own."

"He has people of his own! He has me and Kankuro!"

Naruto nodded sadly, "But he chose to push you away, while I accepted the few people I had in my life. It's still not too late, Temari. Just keep showing him what love truly means, and he will come to you. Give him another chance to accept."

Temari slowly looked up to him with tears glistening in her eyes. Naruto slowly removed his arms from her, stepping back. "You should go now. Konoha shinobi might be here any moment."

Temari pursed her lips, but nodded. She turned away, about to jump to the trees, but she hesitated.

Naruto waited for Temari to jump away, but she looked hesitating. "Temari-"

He never finished his sentence, for a pair of lips came to softly rest on his own. Naruto looked shocked only for a moment, but before he could wrap his arms around her, Temari separated and turned away, taking to the trees.

Naruto's hand came to rub on his lips, feeling the taste of her own. He smiled; there was something else in that kiss. Something that promised a better future.

Still smiling, he turned around, only to freeze on spotting Sasuke, who was carrying Sakura in a piggyback. Sasuke was looking extremely shocked and confused. He did not know what or how to make sense out of this. "What the hell was that?!"

Naruto panicked for a second, but then got a grip and replied, "A kiss, what else could it be?"

He turned around to go and gather his kunai, but Sasuke stopped him again. "No! I-I mean, why did she kiss you?!"

Naruto turned around with a frown, "I don't know what goes on in her head. But what the hell are _you _doing here? Weren't you supposed to take Sakura and head back to safety?"

This time, Sasuke surprised Naruto by looking abashed of all things. He muttered something unintelligible, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow. "Sorry, couldn't hear you. Come again?"

"I said I couldn't leave you behind, okay?" Sasuke snapped, a hint of red on his cheeks.

Naruto snorted and walked past the boy, "It's rare to see you worry about someone else. But don't worry about me. As long as you have that kunai with you, I can flash to you anytime."

Naruto suspected Sasuke had taken the kunai not so Naruto could flash to him, but to decipher the secret behind it. Sasuke wasn't an idiot; he obviously had noticed it in his fight with Gaara what he used the kunai for, and he wanted the jutsu for himself.

Too bad for him.

In his notes, Minato had written down that he had taken the jutsu to levels that were seemingly impossible. He had developed it so far that in fact, it almost became a sort of an artificial bloodline. A jutsu that could only be used by someone of his blood, that too counting in all the fuinjutsu processes that involved locking your chakra at each step.

Sasuke mentally flinched at that. He forgot to take into account that Naruto could sense all of his kunai. He had to divert the topic fast before Naruto asks him to give it back.

"Why did you let them go?"

That question caught Naruto's attention as he picked the last of the Hiraishin kunai scattered on the ground. He slowly turned to face Sasuke. He opened his mouth to explain why, but stopped at the sudden rush of chakra in his system, as well as memories. What the hell…..?

Sasuke watched curiously as Naruto's head snapped towards the direction of the stadium, a classic expression of "What the fuck" on his face. "What is it?"

Naruto turned to face Sasuke, a sense of urgency on his face that wasn't there before. "You need to get back to Kakashi, right now." He stepped forward, a hand outstretched, probably to send him to Kakashi.

Sasuke stepped back, "Whoa! You are _not _sending me back like that! Not until you tell me why!"

Naruto grit his teeth as more memories flowed into his mind. He did not have time for this! "I can't tell you right now because someone close to me is in danger. How about this…..I'll tell you once the invasion is over and you promise me, right now, that you won't tell a soul about this until I tell you so. Deal?"

Sasuke thought over it a bit and said, "Alright, but you better tel-"

He wasn't allowed to finish as Naruto put a hand on his forehead and forcefully sent him back to where Kakashi was. He might have finished the enemies in the stadium by now.

He flashed, and within ten seconds, he had gathered every kunai that had been scattered in the area. After inspecting the clearing for one last time, he flashed again.

_Hold on jiji. I'm coming._

XXXXXXX

Temari and Kankuro were supporting Gaara on each of his sides as they made their way back to Suna. With Gaara's defeat, the invasion was moot.

Naruto made a good point about Gaara, she thought. They allowed Gaara to push them away, and her efforts had been clearly not enough to make him come back to her.

Gaara had pushed them away as well. Their father, in hopes of strengthening Gaara as fast as he could, sent assassins to kill him. While none could get past his sand, Gaara still wanted to be close to them. However, something happened, and suddenly, Gaara became the cold person he was. He cared only about himself. She figured that the amount of killing attempts finally broke him, convincing that no one would care for him, or acknowledge his existence.

Then Naruto came along and unlike anyone they had ever met, proceeded to beat Gaara into the ground until he was willing to hear what Naruto had to say.

Temari knew that Naruto had changed Gaara's outlook on life permanently. She had witnessed hope in Gaara's life for the first time in years. Hope that he could make a life for himself like Naruto had did.

"Temari, Kankuro," a voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to face Gaara, who was still not meeting her eyes. Kankuro shot a questioning look at his sister, but his confusion turned to shock when Gaara uttered a single word.

"Sorry."

Both the older siblings were shocked that Gaara apologized to them. For years, Gaara viewed everyone as beneath him. For him to apologize, it meant Naruto's words had had a deep effect on him. Temari smiled; they were in Naruto's debt for this.

"It's ok, little brother."

XXXXXXX

Kakashi looked tiredly around the stadium. A large number of bodies were littered around almost in every part of the arena, either covered in blood or outright crushed. He blamed Gai for all of this. That man seemed to make everything a competition between them and for some reason that even he doesn't know, Kakashi always indulged in those things.

Gai had made a bet that he could kill more enemies than Kakashi. Kakashi, being the dutiful, eternal that he was, agreed to the bet. After almost an hour of continuous fighting, the enemy had finally stopped coming into the stadium.

Gai was standing on the other side of the arena. He waved energetically at Kakashi. "YO, KAKASHI! HOW MUCH IS YOUR COUNT?"

'_Is there an end to his youth,' _Kakashi tiredly thought, but answered anyway. "Fifty-seven," he answered in a bored tone. Just as he predicted, Gai shifted to a completely different personality.

"OH KAKASHI! IT SEEMS YOU HAVE WON AGAIN, MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"

It was no secret in Konoha that he and Gai were eternal rivals. Kakashi was thankful for his face mask every time Gai chose to announce their rivalry publicly. That man had no sense of stealth whatsoever. People already questioned if he was mentally fit to be a ninja, it won't do for them to start questioning him as well.

Kakashi mentally sighed. His best friend was a pain in the ass.

Just as he was about to approach Gai, Sasuke suddenly appeared beside him, with Sakura unconscious on his back. Kakashi already had a kunai out ready, but lowered it once he saw who it was. He watched, amused, as Sasuke blinked, no doubt disoriented from the sudden travel and proceeded to curse in a way that Kakashi almost blushed. Though he couldn't hold back the perverted giggle upon seeing his students' position.

"That asshole! I told him not to do that!" Sasuke shouted before spotting Kakashi. He raised an eyebrow in deadpan upon hearing the perverted giggle. "What is it?"

Kakashi was more than happy to point it out, "I wonder what you plan on doing with her Sasuke. Especially you are carrying her when she's unconscious."

Sasuke blinked, not understanding the reference at first. Then he remembered that his sensei was a pervert, and then his face suddenly turned red. "Don't make such useless assumptions, you perverted jerk!"

Kakashi refrained from commenting that this might be proof of a claim Naruto had made some time ago. _He might be gay, after all._

He then turned to face the purple barrier in which his leader was trapped. He could only hope that Sandaime would manage to survive against his former student.

XXXXXXX

Things were not going well for Hiruzen. Orochimaru had been right; he was not as strong as he was ten years ago, let alone his prime. And it showed; his movements were slow, his chakra capacity, even though it hadn't deteriorated with age, he had a limit to what he could exert now. If he exerted more, his chakra coils were in danger of permanent damage. And don't even get him started on his old joints.

He and Orochimaru engaged first in taijutsu, which rapidly progressed into ninjutsu. At one point, Hiruzen had even managed to corner his student again. With a smirk he had thought, _'Looks like I still got it.'_

Got it, his ass.

Orochimaru had blocked his attacks by pulling up coffins of all things. From then on, it was no longer funny. In fact, Hiruzen was outraged that Orochimaru had the nerve and spine to do such a vile thing.

Orochimaru had defiled the graves of both of his senseis. Hiruzen had watched with horror filled eyes as Orochimaru opened the graves to allow the now resurrected Shodai and Nidaime hokage to walk out. And they looked terrible. Both of their skin was deathly pale, as it was rightly so. Orochimaru had forcefully called the dead into the land of the living.

Hiruzen had to stop himself from facepalming when the former hokages finally opened their mouths to speak. Even though Hiruzen knew that Hashirama-sensei was a peculiar man, with his unusually boisterous and seemingly idiotic nature, it was Tobirama-sensei who knew Hiruzen the best. It was scary how easily he could read his student. Hiruzen even suspected that Tobirama knew that he was a closet pervert, but he didn't really know, for the man never called him out on it. Only Hashirama knew of that fact, and even he had found out by accident.

But enough of that.

The first words that Hashirama-sensei had spoken were: "Is that you, Sarutobi? It has been a long time."

Hiruzen had cringed how much dead he had sounded. But somehow, that same tone from Tobirama didn't surprise him at all. In fact, it was all he could do from facepalming. "You have gotten old, Saru."

That man was always blunt like that. Turns out, it was an extremely vile jutsu that had been created by Tobirama. Edo tensei was a jutsu that binds the soul of a deceased person to a living vessel, restoring the deceased as they were when they were alive in order to do their summoner's bidding. It was the ultimate insult one can give to the dead. Why Tobirama-sensei created this, he would never know. And how Orochimaru got a hold of this, that also he would never know. Ultimately, Hiruzen had no choice but to fight his former senseis.

As the fight between them progressed, Hiruzen noted that while his opponents were certainly strong, they were nowhere near the level they were when they were alive. They were merely puppets that Orochimaru was controlling Hiruzen would know; he was their prized student, after all.

But even then, Hiruzen slowly found himself on the losing side of the battle as his age and lack of training in a long time slowly took a toll on him. Even after summoning Enma, who became an indestructible adamantine staff, he was put on the ropes by the Shodai's mastery of mokuton and Nidaime's mastery of suiton. Even if they were puppets, their teamwork was strong enough that Hiruzen was hard pressed to just dodge those attacks. And if things weren't bad enough already, both the bodies of the former Hokages were seemingly indestructible. Any damage dealt to them was recovered from within seconds.

'_This is bad. At this rate, I really would be killed. I cannot afford to let them escape this barrier. Konoha would never recover from being destroyed by its own creators,' _Hiruzen thought as he dodged Tobirama's attacks and used his staff to strike Hashirama in the face. He put some distance between him and both the Hokages with a large scale katon jutsu.

He then suddenly remembered what happened before they started fighting. _'Of course! How could I have forgotten that? Naruto gave me a scroll, saying that it had some reinforcements. I really could use a soldier pill right now.'_

He set Enma loose on the Hokages, while he untied the scroll. As soon as he saw the slightly changed, but still recognizable prisoner containment seal, he was confused. Why would Naruto want to give him such a scroll right now?

But he had not time to think over it as Enma came skidding back on his feet. **"Whatever you are doing, hurry up Sarutobi!" **Enma shouted in his gruff voice.

Hiruzen wasted no more time and spread the scroll on the ground, pushing chakra into it, choosing to trust Naruto. And boy, Naruto knew _exactly _well what reinforcements are.

Hiruzen stared dumbfounded at the army of blondes, no doubt shadow clones that Naruto created. He knew Naruto had a ridiculous amount of chakra, but _this? _This was a whole new level of absurd.

He would have to re-evaluate the blonde, if he survived.

Orochimaru was flabbergasted as to how did the old fool manage to pull this in the middle of the battle. Then he noticed the scroll in his hand.

'_A prisoner containment scroll modified to seal shadow clones. And the look on his face means someone gave it to him. I don't need to be a genius to figure out who. But no matter; a hundred shadow clones against two hokages are nothing. They will only buy the old fool some time.'_

Sadly, Orochimaru was only partially correct. The entire roof became a field for chaos within seconds. The changes that the first Hokage had made to the roof with his entire mokuton only added to the clones' advantage as they took extreme pleasure in causing as much chaos as possible, with flash step and Hiraishin. Hiruzen grabbed this opportunity to rest and chuckled. This certainly was useful.

But he could see that having shadow clones as back had its downfalls as well. The hokages proved how formidable they were, for the clones started dispelling only two minutes after they were summoned. Hiruzen knew that this was bad, and there was no way he would be escaping today with his life. He sighed sadly as he thought about his life until today. He had made countless decisions, and just as many mistakes. He regretted what he was about to do, but there was no other option. And he was in no way, calling Naruto to fight with him. Just as he was about to initiate the sequence for the jutsu that would seal the dead away, a clone flashed beside him. With so many flashes going around, Hiruzen wasn't even surprised.

"This backup is going to get destroyed in just ten seconds," he said testily, watching with growing nervousness as only twenty of them remained now.

Hiruzen nodded gravely, "When you dispel, pass on my thanks to Naruto. I regret that I won't be escaping alive today."

The clone looked at him with a surprised face. Another peculiar thing that Hiruzen had discovered was that each of Naruto's clones had a different personality. One was happy to the point of being goofy, one was lazy, one was an angry one and there was one that was exactly like Naruto, which was the one thing that he found weird. Considering shadow clones are meant to be the user's exact copies, finding an exact copy among Naruto's different ones was certainly a new experience.

This one seemed prone to be surprised every now and then. He wanted to say something, but words seemed to fail him as he could only close and open his mouth repeatedly. He then sighed, and Hiruzen found his worry growing as a determined look came onto his face. "If you say that you have no choice, then I'm afraid I have no choice as well."

The last clone besides the one was dispelled, and Hiruzen dropped into a stance again, holding Enma. This was his final stand, and he would be dammed if he let Orochimaru win!

Just as he was about to commence his attack, he saw the last clone beside him making a half ram seal, dispelling a second later. What was he up to?

He suddenly got a very bad feeling in his stomach. Surely he was not going to….

His worst fears were confirmed when in a flash of blue, the prime himself arrived. With a cocky smirk on his face, no less.

"Am I late or what?"

XXXXXXX

The ANBU standing outside were dumbstruck upon seeing Uzumaki Naruto. It was one thing to see his performance in the matches against two very formidable genin, it was a whole another thing to see him face off against Orochimaru of the Sannin. Naruto could easily take out an A-rank jonin with what he did in the matches, and the ANBU were willing to bet that what they saw was not even half of what Naruto was truly capable of. But Orochimaru was no ordinary A-rank opponent. A high S-rank shinobi trained personally by the Sandaime hokage, he was no joke of an opponent at all.

To say the atmosphere was tense was the understatement of the decade.

"What is he doing?!" An ANBU barely kept from shouting.

The captain narrowed his eyes behind his mask and replied, "There is no doubt that Uzumaki Naruto and the Sandaime share a close bond. The reinforcements he provided him were the proof of that, if you can even call them that. In addition to that, Naruto had successfully anticipated a personal attack on Hokage-sama and prepared accordingly. Now that I think about it, it doesn't surprise me that he was alerted of the battle due to the memories of the numerous Kage Bunshin. One of them must have sent a message to him to personally come here."

"But he still is just a genin standing in a field of Kage-level shinobi. He would-"

"I think that it is well established by now that Uzumaki Naruto is not an ordinary shinobi at all," the captain calmly refuted. Turning back to the fight, he said in almost a whisper, "We just have to trust him."

XXXXXXX

Naruto carefully eyed Orochimaru as he slowly shifted into a stance. This was his second time battling the Sannin, and this time, he won't be pulling anything against him. He could not afford to. However, he had to know something first.

"Why did you do it?"

Orochimaru was also, not quite surprised by Naruto's appearance. His shadow clones must have relayed everything that happened. He used his control on the Edo Tensei to pull back the two Hokage for now. Who knows, he might learn something interesting. "Why did I do what?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger. "Don't play games with me. Why did you defile the graves of the previous hokage? You could have easily matched hokage-sama, even beaten him, considering he's far from his prime."

Orochimaru chuckled, amused by the anger in front of him. "I only found it fitting, and a little ironic that the people responsible for the birth of this village will also be responsible for its death, along with the Ichibi."

Naruto felt rage building within him but he ruthlessly pushed it back. Now was not the time to lose his mind. "I've already received memories of my clones. They did keep you a bit busy, but in the end, they are just clones who can get dispelled in just one hit. So I'll ask you this: What makes you think we'll just let you do what you want?"

Orochimaru felt a bit of anxiousness creep into him, like something bad was going to happen. Nonetheless, he didn't let this show on his face, keeping up his amused façade. "You really think you have what it takes to stop me? Edo Tensei has no exploitable weakness as far as anyone knows! I am the only one who knows how to use it in the first place!"

Naruto smirked, despite the situation he was in. "Be that as it may, you've already lost, Orochimaru of the Sannin. I've already sent the Ichibi running with its tail between his legs."

This fact surprised both Orochimaru and Hiruzen. Hiruzen asked him with shock, "The Ichibi has been defeated?"

Naruto gave him a side glance, "Of course. I wouldn't be here if he wasn't."

Orochimaru found himself growing annoyed. Using Gaara as his weapon was a major part of his plan. To think Naruto managed to defeat him and still have energy left to fight him…

'_He is quickly becoming a pain. He not only manages to defeat Gaara, thereby foiling my invasion by a good margin, but he even gave the old fool some reinforcements that I didn't even know of. If I don't take care of him now, he'll become a full blown annoyance for me in the future,' _the snake summoner thought with a frown. Time to end this battle.

"Be that as it may," he mocked the young Uzumaki, "You can't hope to match the might of the Hokages just yet! Maybe in the future, but only if you live through today." With that, he commanded

Naruto chuckled as he pulled out his own scroll, "You should know better than that, you reptilian psychopath. Every jutsu has a weakness." He released the contents of the scroll, and Orochimaru had to fight a groan of annoyance upon seeing a very familiar sight.

A hundred, grinning clones once again stood between the two sides of the battlefield. The Hokages halted a bit to reconsider on how to deal with this setback, but Orochimaru forced them to keep going.

"It's just the matter of finding it." With that, all the clones once again engaged the two Kages with glee, using the advantages their predecessors set for them before they ran out.

Naruto then turned to Hiruzen with a serious look on his face. "Jiji, tell me what you know about this Edo Tensei. My clones weren't able to tell me much. I'll need everything you know to devise a counter against it."

Hiruzen took a moment to study Naruto. With his eyes narrowed and his hair flowing in the wind, Hiruzen was once again reminded of Minato. Cold and calculative in battle, Minato had rarely lost against someone and at his strongest, even Jiraiya had admitted that he could not defeat Minato. To think that his son would grow so powerful as to assist the Hokage in one of his battles, right after defeating a tailed beast. It would be injustice if he were to be promoted to chunin.

"Very well." And while the clones did their best to keep the Kages and Orochimaru busy, Hiruzen told what he had studied from the forbidden scroll and witnessed firsthand. Just as all the clones were once again demolished, Naruto had everything he needed to know. He was now looking at Orochimaru with a predatory smile which was frankly, a bit unnerving.

"It's a summoning jutsu? You don't say….."

Before he could act on his plan, he and Hiruzen were surprised when suddenly, Tobirama decided to speak. "Whatever you have planned, don't waste time in executing it!"

Hiruzen blinked a few times, "Nidaime-sama, I thought you were under control."

He dodged and blocked the dead Hokage's attacks while exchanging words. "He only can control my actions, but not my personality! Even though we are compelled to obey his orders, that doesn't mean we can't think and talk for ourselves!"

"And why the hell would you decide to train a student such as that?"

Hiruzen sighed as Hashirama, who had decided to engage Naruto, himself jumped into the conversation. As always, he was highly eccentric.

Naruto called out to his jiji, "Just keep him busy, jiji! I have a way to stop them from attacking!"

Hiruzen grit his teeth and snapped back, "What do you think I have been doing all this while?!"

Naruto turned back to his fight. He was exchanging blows with the Shodai, more like dodging and flipping, was evaluating his position in this fight. _'With all the Kage Bunshin gone, my chakra capacity is roughly a bit more than a third of my actual reserves. Jiji told me that on top of having monstrous reserves of chakra, both the Senju brothers have an unlimited supply of it in their current state. But they are not fighting at full strength, which means we still have a chance.'_

Naruto substituted with a clone seamlessly in the middle of his fighting. However, Hashirama had decades of battle experience. It was foolish to hope that it could have fooled him. As soon as he detected the switch, he immediately dispelled the clone and turned his attention back to the original, only to find a ball of wind racing towards him.

'_Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu!'_

Naruto watched as the legendary kage simply backflipped to dodge the highly explosive jutsu. However, he failed to take notice of the seal on the sleeve of his left hand. Just as Hashirama completed his flip, Naruto was no longer in his vision. He let his instincts take over as he turned around to kick Naruto away, but he suddenly found he couldn't move. Combined with his awkward position of a leg high in the air, he toppled face first into the tiles of the roof. Curiously enough, there was a large, goofy smile on his face.

"Ho! You managed to paralyze me, young leafling?"

Naruto was lightly panting as he gazed down at Hashirama, "A modified Uzumaki paralysis seal. Complete lockdown of motor functions and cannot be overloaded with chakra, which I'm sure you have no small amount of."

Surprisingly, Hashirama outright laughed. To be honest, Naruto did not know what to make of the first hokage. While he had his own vision of the Shodai Hokage, he had never imagined him to be a goofy idiot. And he was pretty sure he wasn't the only one who thought so when the aforementioned kage was alive. It was completely undignified for someone who is called the god of shinobi.

Hashirama joyfully replied, "Not every day I meet someone of your age who can catch me off-guard like this! The will of fire burns brightly in you, I see!"

Naruto bowed, "Thank you for your compliment, Shodai-sama. But the fight is not over yet." He made a shadow clone, who took up guard beside a curious Hashirama. "Just be ready for it when it happens."

If he wasn't bound, Hashirama would have given a thumbs up with a large grin. Seeing he was bound, he just grinned, not even knowing what Naruto was talking about. "Will do!"

With that, Naruto turned his sights onto the jackpot, Orochimaru. Without any further thought, he flash stepped, barreling his right fist right into Orochimaru's jaw.

Orochimaru was thoroughly enjoying himself. He had sent the Shodai to dispose of the meddlesome Uzumaki, while he teamed up with Tobirama to take Hiruzen down. It was actually quite amusing to hear the legendary water user curse at him, while attacking his own successor. He was about to use an opening Tobirama had created to stab his sensei with the famed sword of Kusanagi, when he was suddenly punched in the face so hard he swore his teeth might have loosened a bit. He went flying back, though he managed a flip in the air and land gracefully on his feet. He looked up and grit his teeth in annoyance. Naruto was standing right before him, kunai held in reverse grip and wind chakra flowing through them.

"How are you standing before me? You should have been killed by the Shodai!"

Naruto smirked, "I don't see why you need to know." He then disappeared in a flash step, and Orochimaru blocked the swipe at his throat at the last second. Both settled in a furious bout of taijutsu, each trying to overpower the other. Orochimaru knew not to underestimate Naruto in anyway, while Naruto knew that he needed to end this as quickly as possible. He delivered a series of punches that were blocked, but pushed Orochimaru back enough for Naruto to execute a move of his own. He front flipped with legs split at 180 degree angle; Orochimaru blocked the first leg with both of his hands, but the second leg came crashing down on his head painfully, causing him to kiss the roof.

Orochimaru groaned as he rubbed his head to quell the pain. If he hadn't been suffering blows like that from Tsunade a long time ago, he would have been seeing stars. While Naruto didn't have Tsunade's monstrous strength, the speed he used to augment his attacks made them no less formidable. His eyes opened wide in alarm as he suddenly saw that Naruto was nowhere in sight. All of a sudden, he was forced to weave in between four shadow clones that had suddenly appeared from nowhere.

One swipe of his sword took care of the first, the second was kicked out of existence, the third managed to poke a pressure point on his arm that made it go numb, but he was managed as well. The last one attempted an upward slash, only to see the he would be stabbed before he could slash the Sannin. So using his slower perception, he let go of the Hiraishin kunai just as he was stabbed in the back. It was almost like slow motion for Orochimaru as he watched the kunai spin upwards. His own free hand reached up in slow motion to grab the kunai before it was too late.

Oh, too late.

Naruto suddenly appeared mid-air, in perfect position, grasping the kunai by its handle and delivering a direct, blazing palm thrust on Orochimaru's back. The attack was way too fast for Orochimaru to counter and was therefore, bashed into the roof once again. Naruto flashed to the kunai a few meters away. As Orochimaru slowly recovered from the attack, Naruto took a glance to see how jiji was doing.

Not good. He will have to be extremely quick.

Hiruzen was heavily panting. He was running low on chakra, and even Tobirama could see that. So exhausted he was, that coupled with his old age, he was starting to get dizzy. He tripped on one of the uprooted tiles and fell back, simply unable to continue anymore. He could do nothing but watch as Tobirama picked up a stray kunai and rushed towards him. Hiruzen closed his eyes as he waited for the end. Rather sad that he would die by his sensei's hand rather than an enemy's. For all his speed, it seemed Naruto was a bit late.

'_Sorry Naruto, but this is the end.'_

Seconds passed, and Hiruzen was confused. He should have been stabbed in the heart by now by his sensei. Opening one eye, he saw that Tobirama's hand had stopped an inch from his heart. Tobirama himself was looking surprised as to what just happened. He slowly reeled back, clenching and opening his fist to confirm for himself if this was really happening.

"It seems that I have gained back the control of my body," he analyzed before looking over to where his brother was. A clone over there was pressing a hand to Hashirama's back, releasing some sort of paralyzing seal. Hashirama grinned as he shot up to his feet, testing the movement of his limbs.

"So this is what he was talking about! I have to say, I never predicted this!"

Tobirama turned back to see just what had happened that they were out of Orochimaru's control, only to see a deep gash on Orochimaru's right side, with blood flowing from it like waterfall. The Sannin was pressing the wound as tight as he could to slow the blood flow down. Just a second later, his mouth opened widely and another Orochimaru crawled out of it, without any injuries. He had a snarl on his face, but the damage was already done.

"I can't believe you just did that…"

Naruto just grinned at his victory. "Looks like you just weren't fast enough."

"What just happened here?" Tobirama questioned with authority.

Naruto grinned as he recounted what happened moments before.

_**Thirty seconds back**_

_Orochimaru stood up as he leveled a death glare at Naruto. The boy had landed way too many hits. There was no doubt that he was skilled and talented, but this was frankly ludicrous. Even he couldn't match Sarutobi-sensei when he was that young. But then again, he didn't know the Hiraishin. 'He teleported to the kunai in the air! I should never have let my guard down after dismissing those clones!'_

"_You efforts are admirable," he rasped out, "But ultimately useless! This is a jutsu that not even the Yondaime could have found the weakness to. All you are trying to do is delay the inevi-"_

_He never got the chance to finish his monologue as Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him. He placed one hand on his stomach, the right, while the other holding the kunai went right into Orochimaru's side, drawing a surprised grunt from then man. One moment he was standing in front of Orochimaru, the next moment, no, instant, he was burying a kunai into him._

'_Hiraishin no jutsu! He must have marked me in that attack!' Orochimaru thought as he released a breath in pain as the kunai went deeper._

"_Even the Yondaime? Puh-lease," Naruto mocked, "He would have ended this fight ages ago." Orochimaru felt a burst of chakra down where Naruto's palm was and looked down, his face morphing into horror as he realized what had happened._

"_A Contract Seal? What are you-" Before he could finish his sentence, Naruto slashed the kunai sideways, right out of the screaming sannin's body and drawing a huge amount of blood, along with some chunks as well. He then flashed back before Orochimaru could retaliate._

_**Flashback over**_

Naruto grinned as he neared the end of his explanation, "Jiji told me that you _summoned_ the hokages from the dead. The fact was further cemented when I learned the full name of this jutsu. _Kuchiyose: Edo tensei _is a jutsu that puts the summoned soul in a contract with the summoner to do their bidding. So I simply cancelled that contract with a contract seal, which removes any form of direct control a summoner has over any summon."

Tobirama smirked as a pleased grunt escaped his throat, "To know the Hiraishin and fuinjutsu at such a young age and apply it in combat. It's good to know that the future of the leaf is in hands such as these. What is your name?"

Naruto straightened up while keeping Orochimaru in sight, "Uzumaki Naruto, Nidaime-sama."

"Who taught you the Hiraishin?"

"I learned it from my father's notes, Nidaime-sama."

Tobirama raised an eyebrow, "I see."

Then he turned towards Orochimaru with a menacing expression. Both he and Hashirama started walking towards the now nervous man, cracking their knuckles. "So you were going to use us to destroy the village we built? You have some nerve….."

Tobirama added as well, "Don't think you can escape! We are no longer under your control!"

Both of them rushed at Orochimaru, who knew that there was no way he could do anything. The Kages were out of his control by a contract seal, which meant that he could not even cancel the jutsu. Which left only one option.

"Lower the barrier! We are leaving!"

"**Hai Orochimaru-sama!"**

The barrier was lowered, and Orochimaru turned to escape when suddenly, Naruto flashed in front of him and kicked him right in the face. He went tumbling back on the roof, coming to a harsh stop. He immediately got back up, but there was no way he was able to counter what came next in time.

'_Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!'_

Orochimaru had no time to mold enough chakra for a counter, so he just brought his hands forward in a cross position. He screamed in pain as the concentrated fire utterly burnt his arm, even from the inside. Only when the fire stopped was he able to jump back. Only years of building up his pain tolerance allowed him to not pass out right on the roof.

'_My arms!' _He mentally raged. They were burnt right to the inside and even trying to move his little finger send painful jolts up his arms. And he won't be able to change his body for almost four months. _'I'll get you for this, Uzumaki Naruto!'_

The Sannin fled the battlefield, arms and pride injured and objective failed. He had never foreseen that he would be defeated by a mere genin, much less the hokage. The only comfort that he could take that Uzumaki Naruto was no mere genin, and even that wasn't much comforting. Down the road, Orochimaru would have to watch out for him.

XXXXXXX

"And there he goes again," Naruto muttered as he saw Orochimaru vanish into the ground.

"I'm surprised that someone managed to get their hands on that jutsu," Tobirama commented while looking at Naruto with his hands folded. He looked every bit the hokage he was known to be.

Hashirama on the other hand…

"Tobirama, I told you that it wasn't a great jutsu," he said with a hand running down his face.

Tobirama turned an annoyed face to his older brother, "Will you be quiet, Anija? I'm trying to talk to this genin!"

"But I-"

"Shut! Up!"

It was almost comical how quickly the god of shinobi could fall into depression. As soon as Tobirama asked oh-so-politely for his elder brother to shut up, a cloud of rain appeared above Hashirama's head.

Naruto chose to ignore the bickering of the brothers and went to check up on the old hokage, who was now sitting up and watching the bickering with a nostalgic smile. Naruto couldn't think of anything to say, so he just sat down beside him. "Were they always like that?"

Hiruzen chuckled, "Always. Their antics never failed to amuse me. But that is what them so great."

Naruto tilted his head, "What do you mean?"

Hiruzen gave a cryptic smile, "You'll understand in time."

Naruto huffed, muttering about old men and their elusive ways of talking. Hiruzen chuckled and patted Naruto on his back, "I have to say, you sure do live up to your title, the most unpredictable ninja of Konoha. I expected some extra weapons or, considering it was your clone who gave it to me, some really good fuinjutsu traps. Boy, you almost gave me a heart attack when I saw the hundred Kage Bunshin standing like some sort of army."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed his head, "What can I say, I didn't know what kind of attack you would be involved in, so I just did the first thing that came to mind."

Hiruzen laughed and said, "It was excellent, and worth seeing the look of bafflement on my former student's face. But seriously Naruto, I have to commend you. You not only displayed the true characteristics of a shinobi in battle, but you were smart enough to figure out a to counter the Edo Tensei in just minutes, while even I couldn't!"

Naruto blushed a little at the praise and was about to say something when an incredulous voice interrupted their conversation. "Did you say, a hundred shadow clones?"

Both of them turned to see Hashirama with a look of wonder on his face as he approached with his brother. Naruto nodded, "Hai, Shodai-sama."

Hashirama gave a sly look to Tobirama, "That's way more than you were able to do, Tobirama. And he is still just a child."

Tobirama grit his teeth, restraining himself from whacking the idiot across the head. Cooling down a bit, he turned to Naruto, "You said you were from the Uzumaki clan, did you not? I don't see any red hair, so the blonde must come from your father. And while I knew that Uzumaki possessed chakra reserves large enough to best even the Senju, even the strongest Uzumaki could only make fifty at best."

Naruto slowly nodded. It was a fair assessment, "If it helps you any, I am the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi."

Both of the previous Hokages were surprised, but not that much. "Then it's understandable. After all, only the Uzumaki had life force and chakra strong enough to jail the demon," Tobirama mused to himself. then suddenly remembering something, he turned to the aged Hokage.

"What are you doing holding that hat in your old age, Sarutobi? Shouldn't you have found a successor by now?"

Hiruzen cringed at the reminder of the death of his successor, "I did, sensei. But he died shortly after taking the hat. Kyuubi killed him, but he was able to-"

"-Seal it into Naruto here before he died," Hashirama finished with a frown. "I don't know what to say about this. On one hand, the Yondaime did a great deed by sacrificing himself to save the village, but on the other hand, he passed a great burden onto you, Naruto."

Hiruzen looked at Naruto, who frowned in thought. After a moment of thought, he said. "Well, he couldn't ask anyone else in Konoha to give their child if he wasn't willing to do it himself."

Understanding immediately lit up in their eyes, "The Yondaime was your father, wasn't he?"

Naruto gave a proud smile and a nod, "That he was. He was also your true successor, Nidaime-sama."

Tobirama raised an eyebrow in question, "Oh? How so?"

Naruto explained, "He took your jutsu, the Hiraishin, to levels that even you wouldn't have been able to! He was known as Konoha's Yellow flash!"

Hiruzen reprimanded Naruto for speaking to his sensei like that, "Naruto!"

Naruto just gave a shrug, "Just stating the facts, hokage-sama."

Surprisingly, Tobirama wasn't insulted at all at Naruto's praise of his father. In fact, he chuckled, "He did that? Good for him then, for I always knew that that jutsu could be refined to become better. If he was able to improve it to such a level, then I hope you surpass him as well. It is the inevitable duty of the future generation to surpass the old one."

Hiruzen was smiling like it was the best day of his life. Chatting with his senseis right now felt like the old, peaceful days when he was still training under them. But as much as he enjoyed it, there was work to be done. For one, how to release the jutsu of Orochimaru. Since Naruto negated the control from him, they became nothing more than zombies in the living world.

"As much as I enjoy talking with you like the old days, please tell me you have a way of releasing this jutsu, sensei."

Tobirama scoffed, "Of course I do! The mere fact that you doubt me is insulting! I had thought of the possibility that a revived soul might escape the control of the summoner, so I created a contingency plan. Anija, follow my hand signs."

Hashirama, who was gazing at his village with a sad smile, turned and nodded. With one last look, he walked back to his brother. Just before he started to follow the signs, he turned to Naruto and said, "Naruto, in our short fight, I have seen the great potential that you hold. See to it that you don't waste it, and give a shot at the seat of the Hokage if you want to! You know, change the world, bring peace to it! That was my dream when I was Hokage! You have my full blessings!"

Naruto bowed deep, "Thank you, Shodai-sama." Then he grinned cockily and said, "And I already have my eyes on the hat, Shodai-sama! No one can snatch the position of the Rokudaime from me!"

Hashirama laughed at the enthusiasm, while Tobirama smiled at it. Naruto reminded him just how his elder brother used to be when they were children. Optimistic at every turn, but serious when needed. "Good to know, Naruto. We will be watching, and we look forward to see how you fare."

Naruto brightened up like a sun on hearing that. Even though he didn't outright say it, Tobirama had given his blessings to him as well. Even Hiruzen took an opportunity ask a question that he had wanted the answers to for a long time.

"Hashirama-sensei, Tobirama-sensei, will you please tell me how you managed your paperwork when you became Hokage?"

His questions triggered reactions that were completely astonishing. He had expected them to look a little in pain about the paperwork, but instead they just gave him pitiful looks. As if paperwork was the least of their problems during their reign as Hokage.

"You really haven't figured out after all this time?" Hashirama asked a bit incredulous. Hope blossomed in Hiruzen.

"That means you know how to tackle it, sensei?" Hashirama smiled and was about to tell him when….

"Don't tell him, Anija! If he couldn't figure it out on his own, then he's a failure as my student and Hokage!"

That had the effect of sending Hiruzen into a bout of depression that Hashirama was so familiar with. Hashirama flinched as he saw his student with a rain cloud on his head. _'Is this how it feels to see me do that?'_

Sensei was still so cruel…..

"Don't worry, Hokage-sama. If you want, I can tell it to you," Naruto offered. Hiruzen looked up with a gape.

"How do you know about it?!"

Tobirama butted in with his usual snide remark, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself if you can't figure out an answer that a genin like Naruto can!"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed his head. Just as the two brothers started the hand signs, Naruto remembered something he always wanted to know…

"Shodai-sama!" Hashirama paused and looked at Naruto with raised eyebrows. Shooting a quick apologetic look to the annoyed Nidaime, he said, "Do you mind if I ask you a question about your mokuton?"

Hashirama grinned and dropped his hands to his hips, as if he was proud of speaking that subject. "Sure! I can take a question before going!"

"While your mokuton is highly regarded throughout the shinobi world as a legendary bloodline, how is it that only you possess it and not any of your descendants?"

Hashirama became unusually serious all of a sudden, prompting Naruto to think that he might have overstepped his boundaries. Even Hiruzen looked a bit alarmed at how personal the question was, while Nidaime was eerily calm. All of a sudden, Hashirama opened his eyes and with all seriousness, he exclaimed….

"I don't know!"

This time, Naruto really did faceplant as Hashirama started laughing like the goof he was. Hiruzen chuckled as well, while Tobirama finally couldn't hold it anymore and whacked his brother across the head, hard.

"Let's go already!"

With that, they finally began the hand signs. After a total of twenty four hand signs that Naruto carefully memorized for the future, the souls finally left and returned to where they belonged.

"What a day!" Naruto exclaimed with a big grin.

Hiruzen sighed and took out a notepad to write one last thing in it. He out it back before Naruto noticed it. Naruto turned to him and asked with hopeful eyes. "So, do I qualify for chunin, jiji?"

Hiruzen outright laughed at the adorable childlike look Naruto got in his eyes. It was rare to see it nowadays. "Patience is a virtue, Naruto."

He could finally relax. The invasion was over, and Konoha had survived.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 19

**AN: The last chapter was a blast among all of you, I see! Well, I did sort of expect that people would be happy about the jumbo sized chapter. The bigger the chapter, more the enjoyment, right? At least, that's the way for me. Anyways, do know that I still want to know the answer of the question I asked in the PPS of the last AN. Please do answer. Let's move on now. As a forewarning, I didn't feel as good about this chapter as I did with the previous ones. I may not have done it the justice it deserves. Enjoy, if you can!**

**P.S: This chapter contains a bit of politics. I'm really not good at writing that, so please just bear with me.**

The week after the invasion was as Naruto expected. Everyone became busy in clean up duty. The damage to Konoha was considerable, so all the genin teams were under their sensei's supervision and working alongside civilians to rebuild and restore certain areas that were hit harder than the most. One thing that Naruto noticed was that the rookies and their senseis mostly stayed together in a close radius- most probably the senseis' way of giving them all some sort of comfort.

Now that Naruto stood at the gates of Konoha, he reflected on the past week and all that happened as he about to embark on his first S-rank mission. Each day, something new and strange happened. Either way, boredom was avoided and excitement was maintained.

_**Flashback**_

_**Tuesday**_

_All the genin teams along with their senseis were standing in the Hokage's office, waiting for their orders. Naruto found it strange that Kakashi had himself come to wake him up at six o' clock in the morning. He had told him to get ready and meet him at the entrance to the Hokage tower in fifteen minutes. He had disappeared after that._

_Since it was morning, and Naruto had figured that everyone would be resting considering what had happened yesterday, it took a few seconds for him to register Kakashi's message, and he found several disturbances._

_First, he had never, ever seen Kakashi this early in the morning. The man had a knack for being late to almost everything. He would always tell them to report at the training grounds around five or six in the morning, but he would keep them waiting for a grand total of three hours, every time. _

_Second, Kakashi never told them to hurry anything up. In fact, the longer they took to complete a mission, the better. Mostly because he wanted to read his porn, but it also might be because of the man's lazy attitude in general. Naruto had almost believed that the man was someone who was impersonating Kakashi, until Kurama pointed out that it was impossible for a shinobi to impersonate the chakra signature of another shinobi. _

_Naruto had reluctantly conceded to the point and had gotten dressed as usual. He proceeded to the destination via rooftops, noting grimly the amount of destruction the invading armies had caused, even though Konoha had won in the end._

_As the tower came into view, he was surprised to note that all the rookie teams were standing there as well, along with their senseis. As he landed before them, all the attention was turned to him. Naruto had shifted self-consciously at how all of them were looking at him, as if he was someone else entirely. Deciding to save himself the awkwardness, he greeted them._

"_Yo! What's up?" _

_That was all that came out of his mouth. He really didn't have much to say, honestly. The first one to react was Shikamaru. "What a drag. He is way too chirpy for the morning," he muttered, slumped as usual._

_Naruto shrugged the comment aside and looked for any sign of his teammates. There was none. Approaching Asuma, he asked, "Asuma-sensei, have you seen Kakashi-sensei around? He came over to wake me up, which is kind of strange for him."_

_Asuma took a drag of his cigarette and blew it out, saying, "I did see Kakashi a while ago. Don't worry, Naruto. We are assembled due to the Hokage's orders. He has to show up; Hokage personally threatened him with his book collection if he did not."_

_Naruto whistled in appreciation. Not every day the copy ninja with his porn book collection. He went to stand beside Chouji, who was looking more cheerful than his friend. Leaning against the wall, he waited for his team. Chouji pushed the bag of potato chips towards Naruto. "Yo Naruto! Want some?"_

_Naruto smiled, "Don't mind if I do." His friend had an unusually big heart. To Naruto's irritation, it took Kakashi fifteen more minutes to arrive. And he wasn't the only one who was looking annoyed; the man had the nerve to walk towards them without a care in the world._

_Kurenai flashed a look of annoyance to him, "Really, Kakashi? Keeping the Hokage waiting, again?"_

_Kakashi did not look ruffled in the slightest, "Relax, Kurenai. We still have a full two minutes to report to him."_

_Naruto looked over to his teammates. Sakura looked as if she had literally been dragged out of bed, while Sasuke looked a bit more composed. The small twitches of his eyebrow gave away his irritation, though. He looked at Naruto with an expression he couldn't fully describe, but a sense of foreboding filled his being. He did not like that._

_The rookie teams then entered the Hokage tower together, scaling the stairs in awkward silence. They really just made it in time for the meeting._

_Jiji was sitting in his chair, looking not one bit sleepy and cranky. In fact, he looked just like when he did on regular duty days. He was, as usual, working on some paperwork. All the genin filed into one line, with their senseis standing behind them, waiting for the aged leader to speak._

_Hiruzen looked over to them from beneath his hat with serious eyes. He seemed to be evaluating them as his eyes passed from each genin to another. Everyone, except Sasuke, shifted uncomfortably at his stare. When his eyes landed on Naruto, Naruto just gave him a look of curiosity, silently asking the question, 'What's going on?'_

"_Team 7, team 8, team 9 and team 10," he addressed in his old but powerful voice, "I have called you here to address the issue at hand. As you have already see on the way to here, Konoha has suffered many damages in various parts of the village. Therefore, we need all the Shinobi available, here and out in the field, to protect and rebuild Konoha in its delicate position. Therefore, from today on, you won't be doing any missions at all. All of you will be joining the construction duty, resuming missions only when I see it fit. I have already told your senseis on what to do. Any questions?"_

_Everyone shook their heads, so the Hokage dismissed them. As they exited the towers to go to their workplaces, the genin began chattering among themselves, now that the oppressive aura of the Hokage had been lifted. It came no surprise to Naruto that Ino was the first one to start talking._

"_Why is Hokage-sama giving us construction work? We don't know the first thing about it!" She put her arms up._

_Naruto sighed and answered, if only to shut her up, "That's why we have D-rank missions, Ino. Also, we won't be working by ourselves. Our senseis will be giving us orders in a way that we can follow without getting confused. Lastly, the village needs to be rebuilt, as you can clearly see."_

_Ino frowned and was about to say something when Shikamaru spoke with a raised eyebrow, "Oi, Naruto. You were fighting Gaara in the forest yesterday, right?"_

_And just like that, all of the attention was shifted onto their talk. Ino asked in confusion, "Did you hit your head or something, Shikamaru? Naruto was fighting Gaara in the stadium, not in the forest."_

_Naruto spoke on behalf of Shikamaru, "You may not believe it because you were caught in the genjutsu, Ino, but Gaara was a part of the invasion force. For some reason, he was about to retreat with his siblings but Sasuke managed to catch up to him. I was fighting somewhere else."_

_He deliberately avoided mentioning that he was the one who fought and defeated Gaara because frankly, he did not want to be subjected to her endless questioning. Her reputation as the gossip queen of Konoha made him wary of her. Plus, by mentioning that Sasuke was the one who fought Gaara, she would likely turn her attention onto him. _

_As he predicted, Ino turned to a scowling Sasuke with stars in her eyes, "So you really did defeat Gaara, Sasuke-kun? I didn't have a single doubt!"_

_Naruto refrained from smirking as Ino began to pester the details out of Sasuke. Sakura jumped into the conversation as well, not liking how close Ino was being to 'her' Sasuke-kun. "Back off, Ino-pig! Stop laying onto Sasuke-kun! And besides, what do you mean that Sasuke-kun defeated Gaara?"_

_Now this question attracted everyone's attention. The jonin senseis were watching carefully, ready to intervene in case dangerous information were to be leaked out. They all knew who really defeated Gaara, as they were informed by the Hokage last night when he had called them to discuss what to do today. All the jonin had questions as to how the jinchuriki of the sand was stopped. Jinchuriki were, after all, beings that contained immense power, and there were very few who could claim the feat of defeating one that was fully in sync with his or her bijuu. _

_The Hokage had given them a full report of what had told him when he had summoned the boy into his office yesterday at a separate time than the jonin. After the report, heavy shock had settled upon all of the jonin. To think that Uzumaki Naruto defeated the one-tailed jinchuriki without resorting to his own tailed-beast's power was staggering. And not only that, but he had been instrumental in stopping the snake Sannin, who was here to kill the Hokage?_

_The quality of the information was staggering. Shocked mutters and even a few protests and denials had broken out, saying that it would be impossible to achieve two feats such as those on the same day. However, everyone had shut up when the Hokage's killing intent rose up. Hiruzen had thundered that they dare question the word of their kage. Safe to say, everyone had accepted the information with varying amounts of shock._

_The boy had done feats that would be impossible for almost every jonin there was. The Hokage had then given them orders on what was to be done the next day and warned them that the information was to be strictly kept amongst themselves. Not even a whisper was to be let out, or they would be severely punished._

_Back to the conversation, Sakura was frowning at Ino's statement. She knew her teammates, and while she still had a huge crush on Sasuke, she did not allow that to cloud her judgement. She had seen Gaara fight, and she had seen Naruto fight. She had also seen a bit of how Sasuke fought Gaara before she was knocked unconscious by the giant claw of sand. His speed seemed to have increased very much, and he had a deadly new jutsu; his hand seemed to cackle in lightning. But she could say very confidently that Sasuke could not defeat Gaara or Naruto. When she had woken up, Sasuke had told her that he had managed to escape with her only when Naruto had arrived. So the logical conclusion should be that Naruto defeated Gaara._

_Ino glared at Sakura, "I mean exactly what I said, forehead. Do mean to imply the Sasuke-kun did not defeat Gaara?"_

_Just as Sakura was about to reply in affirmative, Kakashi butted in, much to Naruto's relief. "Alright, we're here. I'm assigning you your places now so that we don't waste time when the workers get here. We'll start by ourselves until then so Sakura? You will help over….."_

_And like that, the conversation was avoided for the day. All the teams had dispersed to different places in the the square and as the day progressed, the entire discussion had been forgotten. _

_**Wednesday**_

_The day before was spent quite fruitfully with all the work they had done. Today, they were to continue where they had left off. As Naruto lifted another of the wooden planks, he was approached by Sasuke, who had his hands in his pockets, trying to look as cool as he could while being covered in in dirt and grime._

"_What's up, Sasuke?"_

_Sasuke frowned at him and simply said, "We need to talk."_

_Naruto looked confused for a moment, but when Sasuke raised an eyebrow, he immediately understood. Sasuke wanted to talk to him about why he let Gaara go._

_Nodding, he placed the plank in its place and turned to him. "You want to have that talk now?"_

_Sasuke nodded. He had been thinking on that question for a while now. He knew that Naruto loved his village, but for him to show such sympathy to his enemy was rare, to the point that Sasuke had never seen before. _

_Naruto turned and walked to where Kakashi was doing his own work. Seeing his student approach him, Kakashi paused, raising an eyebrow in silent question. Naruto said, "Me and Sasuke are taking a break. There's something we need to talk about."_

_Kakashi shook his head, "You can't just leave in the middle of work like this Naruto. The village needs to be rebuilt as soon as possible, so it's for the best if you and Sasuke save your talk aside for later."_

_Naruto just gave him a deadpan and created two shadow clones. Pointing towards them, he said, "These two will substitute for us. I hope that's not a problem now. Please excuse us."_

_He didn't give Kakashi any time to reply, nor did he give Sasuke any time to brace himself. he just grabbed Sasuke and flashed away, leaving Kakashi blinking stupidly at their abrupt departure. The two clones took Naruto and Sasuke's place and resumed the physical labor. Kakashi just had one thought._

'_It must be pretty serious if they had to go like that.'_

_Naruto and Sasuke appeared right on top of the Yondaime's head. Sasuke almost staggered and fell right over the spike if Naruto hadn't caught him in time. He turned around to tear into the blonde but surprisingly, no one was there. He turned further to see that see was standing on the edge of the spike, looking over the bustling village._

"_It's kind of beautiful, isn't it?"_

_Naruto's tone was soft, and Sasuke could not help but detect that there was a hint of longingness. Before he could think about it further, Naruto continued. "The village is like a whole family, taking care of each other. The hokage is like the head of the family, ensuring that there are no disputes. It must be nice…..being a part of that family."_

_Sasuke only looked at his teammate in confusion. Naruto's tone indicated that he was detached from the village, something that Sasuke never sensed from the blonde. Sure, he acted quite aloof and indifferent if only to piss people off, but from the day they had introduced themselves to Kakashi, Sasuke had only seen a strong determination in his eyes. Determination to make his dreams come true. Naruto had made it his ultimate mission to become the Hokage of Konoha, but there was something that Sasuke was missing over here. 'He said something else besides wanting to become Hokage…to make others acknowledge him?'_

_That was something that triggered another memory for Sasuke. The word 'acknowledge' made him remember his fight with Gaara. Gaara had repeatedly proclaimed that by killing others, he would prove his existence. Wasn't proving your existence the same thing as making others acknowledge you?_

_Sasuke was getting pieces of something, but still lacked the material to make out what that 'something' was. "Where are you going with this?"_

_Naruto turned to him with a smile, "You still don't see it?"_

_Sasuke frowned, trying to see where Naruto was leading him but came up with nothing. Naruto chuckled, "This is part of the answer to your question, Sasuke. Gaara and I…you could say we are almost like brothers."_

_Sasuke's head whipped up at that. He then suddenly remembered his thoughts during Naruto's fight with Gaara. Gaara's chakra was crushingly malicious, and Sasuke remembered remembering that he had felt a similar chakra of Naruto during their fight with Haku. "Is it your chakra?"_

_Naruto's eyes showed confusion, "My chakra?"_

_Sasuke elaborated, "When I was fighting Gaara, his chakra was full of malice, killing….I had sensed a similar chakra from you back in wave. Is that why you say you are like brothers?"_

_Naruto chewed on his lips as he thought of an answer, "That is part of why I said that. The reason why I let them go….is because Gaara reminded me of myself."_

_Sasuke's eyes went wide at that. He had a hard time imagining the usually cheerful but aloof blonde acting like Gaara. There was no way Naruto could be anything like Gaara!_

_Unknowing of Sasuke's thoughts, Naruto continued, "He and I share a great burden, and because of that burden, we both have lived our lives as if we were separate from our villages, not a part of them. I've felt the same loneliness and sadness in my life. Gaara thought that you can only become truly strong if you fight for yourself, but that's not true."_

_Sasuke had a hard time on what to think. Naruto spared Gaara because he was able to identify the burden he had. But what burden could he be talking about?_

"_What burden are you talking about? And how can you not become strong if you are fighting for yourself?"_

_Naruto debated on whether to tell Sasuke or not, but decided to tell him in the end. He might not trust the guy completely, but it was better to tell him now instead of him accidentally discovering it in the future._

'_**Are you sure it is wise to tell him, Naruto?'**_

_Naruto mentally nodded, 'I'm sure.'_

_Verbally, he said, "I'll answer your question in reverse, Sasuke. The only way you can truly become strong is if you wish to protect someone you treasure."_

_Sasuke frowned and asked, "And what about the first question?"_

_Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself. He never thought that the first person he would be telling about Kurama would be Sasuke. "What I'm about to tell you is still an S-rank secret, with only the Hokage allowed to speak about it, never mind that almost every adult knows it anyway. Don't tell this to anyone. This is my secret, understand?"_

_Naruto pinned him with his cold, arctic stare. Sasuke was a bit surprised at how serious the blonde was being, but understood. S-rank secrets were no joke at all._

"_As you may recall, thirteen years, the Yondaime supposedly killed," here he made air quotes as to mock the point, "the Kyuubi at the cost of his life."_

"_What about it?" Sasuke asked impatiently._

_Naruto folded his arms, "Bijuu are masses of chakra. And chakra is essentially, energy. According to the law of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but only transformed from one form to another."_

_Sasuke's sharp mind linked the facts together. "Which means that…..bijuu can't be killed?"_

_Naruto nodded._

"_So if the Kyuubi wasn't killed, where is it?"_

_Naruto pursed his lips and replied, "Inside me, sealed away."_

_Sasuke's eyes widened at the revelation. No wonder Naruto was so strong, he thought with bitter jealousy coursing through him again. Why was he chosen to be entrusted such power and not him?!_

"_It would be foolish of me to assume that you're Kyuubi, since a sealing scroll doesn't become a kunai when a kunai is sealed inside it," Sasuke said slowly, after getting his thoughts in order, and reigning in his jealousy._

_Naruto nodded with a smile, happy that Sasuke hadn't immediately jumped to a conclusion._

"_Then is it the Kyuubi that makes you so strong?"_

_Naruto frowned, not liking the insult at all, however unintentional that was. "As a matter of fact, no. I worked hard to reach where I am now, Sasuke. Also, you remember the feel of Gaara's chakra when you fought him, right? Then you should have no problem in imagining the reactions of villagers if Gaara would have been in the village."_

_Sasuke slowly nodded, thinking it over. Naruto had access to such power, but aside from Wave, he never once used it. He then remembered the reactions of villagers when they looked at Naruto when he was small. The task of carrying such burden had made him hated by the villagers._

"_Is that….why you said that Gaara was like you?"_

"_The Yondaime was arguably the greatest seal master of his time, so there was no doubt that the seal he created to hold the Kyuubi would be strong. Gaara on the other hand, his seal was shoddy work, and wasn't able to completely take away the influence of his bijuu. Admirably though, he was able to hold onto himself, but not without some damage. After I beat him…..I told him that there wasn't any reason to not have friends. I had some people that were close to me, but not Gaara. By letting him go, I gave him another chance at making a better life for himself. I do hope he is better off now though….."_

_As Naruto gazed off into the distance, Sasuke found that there was much more to Naruto than what met the eye. He had a lot to think about when he got home, namely if he was choosing the right way in becoming strong to kill Itachi._

"_Oh, and I would like my kunai back, if you please. I found out yesterday that I had one kunai missing. I still have to give the next order for them."_

_His voice snapped Sasuke out of his thoughts, and he had the decency to look a bit sheepish at the slightly amused look Naruto was sending. "It's really not that hard to guess why you want it, you know?"_

_Sasuke mumbled with a bit of red in his cheeks, "I was just a bit curious. Is it because of those kunai that you are so fast?"_

_Naruto smirked, "That's not to say that I neglected my raw speed. But you really should give it back. You can, in no way, decipher its secrets."_

_Sasuke recovered and gave a challenging look, "Really?"_

_Naruto just deadpanned, "Yes, really. You really think you can decipher its function by studying just looking at five kanji? You need to be a seal master to even begin to understand the formula. Even I had to put three months' worth of fuinjutsu into creating the formula on the kunai."_

_Sasuke mentally raged, but that just lasted for a second. He sighed and said, "I'll get it back to you by tomorrow."_

_Naruto smiled and stepped closer, "Excellent! Now that we have finished our talk, let's get back! Kakashi must be fuming in jealousy at how long we are taking a break."_

_Sasuke noticed Naruto's hand going for his shoulder. He only had a moment to prepare when they were suddenly standing back at their working place, facing a surprised Kakashi. He snapped his book shut and asked, "So, you done wasting time?"_

_Naruto just shook his head and said, "I made sure we had replacements. And don't you take the high road! You were reading that book all the while we were gone!"_

_So that day was interesting as well. Sasuke returned his kunai the first thing in the next morning. The next day was probably the best day of the week._

_**On the same evening, Council Chamber**_

_Hiruzen eyed the shinobi council with a sharp and critical eye, as if assessing them. The shinobi council consisted of all the shinobi clan heads in Konoha, both major and minor. Some notable heads were Inuzuka Tsume, Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Chouza, Yamanaka Inoichi, Hyuga Hiashi and Aburame Shibi. There were some empty seats as well such as the Hatake, the Uzumaki and the Namikaze. It was understandable why the Hatake seat was empty, as Kakashi chose to remain a physically active shinobi rather than becoming a politician. The reason why the Uzumaki and the Namikaze seats were empty was too sad and depressing to delve in._

_But enough of that. He hadn't called this meeting to reminisce about the past. No, this meeting was called so he could discuss a report of who should be promoted. Now, this may seem a bit of an inappropriate time for such a matter, but he felt that he should address this matter as soon as possible. It was time for him to choose a successor for him, but the problem was that the successor was absent from the village and as such, won't be able to make a logical decision as to who should be promoted. He fingered the notepad before him absently. It contained what he wrote down about everyone he saw fight, and in the event that he was killed, it was his last and final decision as Hokage. He had written down his choices of promotion on the notepad, along with the reasons._

_He eyed the elders standing on the side. Homura, Koharu and Danzo were his old comrades, but after years of playing politics, they had become too jaded, too much stuck to the old ways. Homura and Koharu he could handle, but it was Danzo he was concerned very much about. His old friend might seem like an old man, along with the other two, but Hiruzen was no fool. Even if he had no proof, he knew without a doubt that Danzo had been involved in multiple activities that he had no knowledge of. And there was no doubt that his old friends would protest against what he was about to do, but he would do it no matter what. _

_Chouza was the first to open the meeting. "Hokage-sama, may I enquire as to why this meeting has been called?"_

_Hiruzen nodded and said, "This meeting has been called by me to discuss possible promotions for chunin."_

_That indeed grabbed the attention of the whole council. Even Shikaku sat up a bit straighter, and the elders looked at Hiruzen in interest._

_Shibi's face could not be seen because of his high collar, but he spoke just like his son. "Excuse me for speaking this Hokage-sama, but shouldn't we be concentrating more on our rebuilding efforts rather than promotions?"_

_Hiruzen nodded at him, "I concede your point, Shibi-san. But there is another matter I need to address. One that is in conjunction with the promotions. You see, I am now long past my prime, so I have to choose another successor, again. But the problem is that the choice I have in mind is not present in the village for the moment. I fear that when they are chosen, they may not be able to make the logical choice for the promotions, as I am the one who took note of the fights."_

_That seemed to satisfy Shibi, as he nodded and leant back a little in his chair. Koharu spoke next, her voice laced with curiosity. "Who do you have in mind, Hiruzen?"_

_Hiruzen flipped open his notepad, "My first choice for promotion is Nara Shikamaru."_

_This caused mutters to rise amongst the council. Shikaku was now fully awake upon hearing that the Hokage was considering promoting his son to chunin. His teammates gave him pats on the back with a smile, as a sign of congratulations, but Shikaku waved a hand for them to stop. He had a feeling that the Hokage had more to say._

_Hiruzen folded his hands under his chin, "First of all, I have to say that your son demonstrated excellent strategy against his opponent, Shikaku. He was very methodical and tactical in his approach, and he was able to keep a cool head in front of a seemingly superior opponent. Also, reports of the missions he has done with his team prior to the exams state his capability in leading a team."_

_Shikaku narrowed his eyes. "I sense a 'but' coming, Hokage-sama."_

_Hiruzen nodded, "But even with intellect of such caliber, he lacks some of the necessary qualities to become a chunin. The foremost that I would like to address is that he seems to lack motivation. The fact that he only fought because Naruto sent him into the arena shows his unwillingness to fight. If he lacks the will to be a chunin, then I feel he shouldn't receive the rank until he is ready."_

_Homura added his own point, "While what you are saying is true, Hokage-sama, sometimes unwilling, but potential candidates such as Shikamaru just need a push. Perhaps the responsibility that comes from being a chunin might improve his work ethics."_

_Hiruzen thought about it a bit and said, "That is true. I also point out that he needs to pull his physical skills up to par in case he finds himself against an opponent he cannot outthink. Only having intellect without having the necessary means to use it is meaningless. However, I put my faith in him that he will strive to improve in order to match the responsibilities that come with the position. Now, I would like to hear the council's opinion. Those who feel that Nara Shikamaru should be promoted, raise their hands."_

_Almost all of the clan heads raised their hands. Both the elders also raised their hands, but Hiruzen was not surprised to see Danzo not in favor of the Nara's promotion._

_Hiruzen nodded and noted it down. "Then it is decided that Nara Shikamaru would be promoted to chunin. Moving onto the next choice…..Uzumaki Naruto."_

_He carefully gauged the faces of everyone in the room. The shinobi clan heads' eyes had widened in surprise, but he was pleased to note that there wasn't any hate or negative feeling he was used to see whenever Naruto's name was mentioned. The elders on the other hand, were simply gaping at him, with the exception of Danzo, who had not reacted at all. Before they could speak, Hiruzen continued._

"_My next choice for promotion is Uzumaki Naruto, but that is not all. I have, after careful thought, considered this. I am nominating Uzumaki Naruto for the position of Jonin."_

_Hiruzen was not surprised at all when gasps of shock and disbelief sounded in the room. In fact, he was willing to bet that if the civilian council had remained, they would have been shouting already. He raised his hand to stop the mutters, lowering it only when the silence had returned. Koharu was the first to speak._

"_Hokage-sama, you surely can't be serious?" It was as if she didn't want to believe that the demon container was even being considered for such a position._

_Hiruzen glared at her, "I am not in the mood for jokes, Koharu." Turning to the council, he spoke, "Before you all start to speak, let me enlighten you as to what happened on the day of the invasion._

_He first started by telling them how he fought Neji. He highlighted Naruto's use of taijutsu against the prodigy of the Hyuga, but he pointed it out that Naruto had successfully kept Neji on his toes, even landing damaging hits. Hiashi didn't react for he had already seen this, but the miniscule twitch under his left eye betrayed his irritation of being reminded of the Hyuga clan's defeat against the Namikaze heir._

_He carefully, orally replayed the fight, saying that Naruto capitalized on Neji's weakness of not being able to see his chakra network, of lack of it. His in-battle intellect was made profoundly clear when Naruto managed to penetrate the supposedly ultimate defense of the Hyuga. Hiruzen also pointed out Naruto's clever use of misdirection as he deceived Neji into attacking a clone, then getting attacked and ultimately, incapacitated._

_He then spoke on Naruto's fight with Gaara. By the day of the finals, everyone knew of Gaara's control over his sand. Hiruzen spoke about how Naruto manipulated Gaara into a position that favored him. His choice of engaging in long distance combat was sound, managing to eliminate Gaara's strengths, and he had nearly defeated Gaara, if the invasion had not taken place. _

_Shikaku used a question with a raised eyebrow, "I understand that it is quite a feat for Naruto to defeat a jinchuriki without resorting to his own bijuu chakra, Hokage-sama. It certainly does speak of Naruto's natural power and talent on the field. He certainly is more powerful than any chunin that we have, even most of the jonin, but I still don't see how he can qualify for jonin."_

_Hiruzen smirked and then proceeded to tell them what exactly had happened during Naruto's fight with Gaara and Orochimaru. After a very lengthy account of Naruto's victories, Hiruzen just sat back with a barely noticeable smirk and watched the conversation unfold._

_Inoichi was the first one to break the silence, "To think that he beat Neji, and nearly beat Gaara two times before finally defeating him, that too with Gaara at full strength and with the help of a boss summon of foxes of all beings that is the size of Gamabunta, then he helped out Hokage-sama by successfully turning the tables against Orochimaru?"_

_There was a long silence before Chouza broke it, "I don't know anyone who can accomplish even half of those things."_

_Danzo, unsurprisingly, asked a question that put Naruto in a suspicious light, "Where did he get the summoning contract for foxes? He should have informed us of such a development!"_

_Hiruzen didn't even need to intervene as Homura spoke next, as if in a frenzy, "Perhaps the Kyuubi was responsible for this. However, it raises a glaring concern as to how did he become so powerful to achieve such feats? Could that be the work of the Kyuubi as well?"_

_Shibi was the one who countered the argument, "I don't see why you are so worried, elder Homura. I distinctly remember a meeting long ago in which you had agreed to the suggestion of Danzo-san training Uzumaki-san. Being a formidable shinobi of his time, Uzumaki-san would have become powerful either way. Is there something that we aren't aware of?"_

_Though his tone was as polite as ever, everyone managed to grasp the meaning behind it. Shikaku, being the most intelligent of all of them, already knew why Homura was panicking as such. They were only acting like this because the greatest weapon of the village was not under their control._

_Koharu asked the next question, "Hokage-sama, how were you made aware of all this information?"_

_Hiruzen just answered, already knowing what she was going to say in reply, "Uzumaki Naruto himself told me."_

_In unison, both the elders frowned heavily. "Then it is possible that he could have lied about this, hokage-sama-"_

_That was as far as she got before Hiruzen's icy glare stopped her cold. "Remember who you are talking to, Koharu. In spite of your bias against Naruto, don't forget that you haven't spoken a word to him all these years, let alone get to know him. You have no right to judge him like that. _

_I have looked after that boy for all his years until now, and I know what kind of person he is. He never had any reason to lie to me at all."_

_Homura asked hurriedly, "Then you are aware how he became as strong as he is now?"_

_Hiruzen glared at Homura, "Yes, I was aware and that is all you need to know about it. But we are straying from the point. Shikaku, I would like to hear what you have to say about this."_

_Shikaku clasped his hands together and said, "Well, Hokage-sama, from what you have said, I can conclude this: Naruto is an extremely powerful shinobi for his age. His chakra capacity even surpasses yours, his skills in the shinobi arts are formidable as well. His taijutsu is strong enough to best a Hyuga prodigy in combat, his ninjutsu repertoire covers over four elemental transformations with high level techniques, which is more than anything what our best jonin can say. And from what you have said Hokage-sama, his fuinjutsu is easily very advanced, if he was able to master the Hiraishin no jutsu and think up of a counter to the Edo Tensei no jutsu by the use of a contract seal. It shows how high his battle intellect is if he was able to come up with a way to beat Orochimaru. Improvisation during battle is one of the most crucial things that a jonin should have. And, he has a summons that can possibly rival Jiraiya-sama's."_

_He sat in silence for a while, obviously thinking over the facts. After a few minutes, he turned over to Inoichi, "Inoichi, how well do you think he can handle pressure?"_

_His friend folded his arms, "From what I have heard, very impressively. Not only he defeated Gaara without panicking or losing his head, but he was able to come up with a strategy to end the Edo Tensei in the middle of fighting Orochimaru. Plus, your question really is quite irrelevant, Shikaku. Naruto has been under tremendous stress from the villagers for years, but he hasn't broken even once. In fact, he was able to shape himself into such a shinobi under such stress is proof of his mental strength."_

_Shikaku closed his eyes and sighed. But before he could further think upon this, Koharu exclaimed hysterically, "B-But the jinchuriki is still too young!"_

_She then immediately shut up when a dose of potent killing intent hit her. "He has a name, Koharu. And you would do well to remember it. Or have you forgotten just whose progeny he is?"_

_Koharu shrank under her teammate's gaze until she reluctantly conceded, "H-Hai, Hokage-sama."_

_Homura took up where she left off, "Hokage-sama, Naruto is still too young, and we don't know if he can be fully trusted or not!"_

_Hiashi bluntly crushed his argument, "Uchiha Itachi was an ANBU captain at his age. Hatake Kakashi also became a jonin at Naruto's age, becoming a chunin at six years old. The Yondaime was a year older than Naruto when he became a jonin. Your argument has no strength, elder." Turning to the hokage, he said, "I am in favor of your motion, Hokage-sama. I have faith that Naruto will be able to deliver quite well as a jonin."_

_That started off a chain of reactions that resulted in every clan head agreeing. The elders were mollified and they vehemently protested against this, but in the end, they were just that. Advisors to the Hokage. Danzo did not show outward reaction but in the inside, he was calculating. 'The jinchuriki of a village should be powerful. Even though ours is, I am doubtful of his loyalties. With such power, he would be difficult to control.'_

_Hiruzen looked over to Shikaku, "What about you Shikaku? What is your decision in your capacity as the Jonin commander?"_

_Shikaku placed his hands on the table. "Well…"_

_**Thursday**_

_The day had begun quite interestingly. For one, Naruto had a very good night's sleep. He had dreams of Temari and him bathing in the hot springs, and this time, they really did kiss. The kiss turned out to be so hot that when Naruto had woken up, his sheets were wet. _

"_Oh man, this feels so messy and weird," he groaned as he got up from the bed. Kurama was full out laughing in his mind._

'_**HAHAHAHA! You had a wet dream about the sand vixen! Oh, I wonder what you saw?'**_

_Naruto groaned. 'Kurama, I don't understand how you can be a pervert. That is Jiraiya's job. And why do you keep calling her vixen?'_

'_**Who are you kidding? You have strong feelings for her. Feelings you know you won't have for any other female.'**_

_Naruto sighed, 'Am I to assume that vixen is your way of calling her my lifelong partner, which won't be happening like, ever?'_

'_**That is exactly what I'm saying. And I don't know about ever.'**_

_Naruto sighed, and when he was about to take his sheet off to clean, his eyes went wide. "What the hell?! Almost the entire sheet is wet!"_

_Safe to say, it was an eventful morning._

_After he got dressed and met up with his team, he found out that he was cleaning out a whole building today. As usual, he went to work without any complaints. However, he only did it himself for two hours before he said, "Fuck it" and produced over eighty shadow clones. He turned to his team and said it with a straight face, "You're way too slow."_

_Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke, along with the other shinobi and civilian workers in the area, only watched dumbfounded as the horde of blonde shinobi went to work. Naruto looked proudly at his clones for a moment before turning to his team with a quizzed look, "What are you looking at?"_

_Sakura came up to him with disbelief and a bit of rage, "You couldn't have done that earlier?!"_

_Naruto pretended to think about it for a moment and then said, "No, I needed to do my two hours of physical training before that. Plus, you really shouldn't rely on my shadow clones, Sakura. You could do with a bit of physical conditioning."_

_Sakura could only gape as Naruto joined his clones in the building. Kakashi blinked before turning to Sasuke, "He's a bit different today, isn't he? Kind of on the chirpy side."_

_Sasuke just gave the customary Uchiha grunt and returned to working. Yesterday's talk really made him think about what he was doing. Naruto said that true strength comes only when you have something precious to protect. Gaara had claimed during his fight that pain of loneliness ad hatred led to more power. And it was hard to prove him wrong, for Sasuke shared the pain with him. But the day before, Naruto had told him that protecting people or anyone you held close gave you a kind of strength like no other._

_He never had doubted that Naruto was incredibly strong, but fighting a tailed beast not only at full power but also beating it into the ground? That was totally crazy. When Gaara lay defeated, so did his philosophy. Sasuke had clearly seen the defeat in the redhead's eyes._

_In the end, both Naruto and Gaara were insanely powerful. The difference was, Naruto was happy with his life, while Gaara's was filled with nothing but hatred and insanity. _

_Up until now, Sasuke had been following Itachi's path. He had shunned away everyone. He resented any kind of bond that formed, but now that he thought about it, was he really growing stronger, or had he been stunting his growth?_

_The answers had deluded Sasuke all night, resulting in a restless sleep. There was so much weighing on his mind, that he was at a loss as to if the answer he would arrive at be really right or wrong?_

_Naruto- well, more like his clones- had cleared almost half the rubble by noon, after which they decided to take a rest. "Whoo, man! That was some good workout!" One of them said while grinning._

_Another one said on the floor, lying in spread eagle position. He groaned, "You're unbearable."_

_Another watched the interaction with a slightly amused look, "You realize that you are essentially talking to yourself, right?"_

_Before the conversation could continue, they all vanished in puffs of smoke. Naruto dropped the half ram with a sigh, "I'm starting to think I am mentally unstable. I'm calling myself unbearable."_

"_NARUTO!"_

_Naruto turned to see Kakashi waving at him. "We have to go to the Hokage's office!"_

_Naruto frowned, "Why? The clean up isn't done yet, so why would he be calling the teams over now?"_

_Kakashi shook his head and gave an eye smile, "No, not the teams. Just you and me."_

_Naruto slapped his hands to get rid of the dust. He shrugged, "Let's go, then."_

_He grabbed a hold of Kakashi and flashed right outside the Hokage's office. The secretary jumped and shrieked in surprise, while Naruto and Kakashi gave her bored glances. Kakashi had revived his habit of getting used to random flashes of light. He said in a bored tone, "The hokage called for us."_

_The receptionist nodded shakily and went in to alert the leader. The sound of footsteps saw them turning around to face Asuma and Shikamaru coming towards them. As usual, the shadow user was slouched, muttering something under his breath._

_Naruto smirked and leaned against the receptionist table. "What's the matter Shika? You seem quite grouchy today."_

_Shikamaru glared at him like the devil, "Don't play dumb, jackass. You know exactly what this is for."_

_Naruto walked over to him and slung his arm around his shoulder, "What's up with you? How can you not be happy with a promotion? I'm surprised you are getting promoted in the first place, considering that you forfeited your match!"_

_While the genin were chatting, Asuma walked up to Kakashi, who had pulled his book out. "Yo, Kakashi. So Naruto is getting promoted as well?"_

"_Looks like it, Asuma," came the bored reply._

_Asuma frowned at him and said, "You know, you should be proud that your genin is getting promoted on the first try, Kakashi."_

_Kakashi sighed and closed his book, "I would be, Asuma, but I can only be proud when I have trained him in the first place."_

_Asuma's frown changed to confusion and was about to say something when the secretary came back out. "Kakashi-san, Asuma-san?"_

_When both the jonin nodded, she said, "Hokage-sama will see you now."_

_Hiruzen stared impassively as the summoned shinobi walked into his office. Kakashi and Asuma went to stand aside while Naruto and Shikamaru stood right in front of the Hokage's desk._

_Naruto smirked as he gazed at his jiji. The man looked positively tired, not of the invasion, but of the pile of paperwork that was high enough that it was about to topple off his desk._

_Hiruzen looked at both of the genin, doing a mental assessment of them as was his habit before beginning any meeting. If both of them were excited, they were doing a very good job of hiding their anticipation. Shikamaru was, as usual, looking the epitome of the Nara clan. Shoulders slumped, hands in the pockets and an expression that said, 'Please don't bother me or I might just die.'_

_Naruto on the other hand, he looked a bit different than what he usually looked. Naruto always maintained a cool and aloof expression, an indifferent and bored air around him that was reflected in his way of speaking. However, today he looked slightly upbeat than usual. His posture was a bit straighter and he looked ready for any sort of action that might come his way. Also, he did not like the way he was smirking at his losing battle with paperwork._

"_Nara Shikamaru!" he barked in a sharp voice, and was pleased to see him stand a bit straighter. He cracked a small smile and said, "Congratulations- your exemplary performance in the chunin exams, as well as the commendable actions on your part with your other genin colleagues and senseis during the invasion, have earned you the promotion to chunin. Here is your standard chunin vest, wear it with pride."_

_He got up from his chair and took the vest from beneath his desk, walking around the table. He handed the light green vest to Shikamaru, who looked at it speculatively and muttered, "Troublesome." But Hiruzen could see the small smile on his face and the smallest amount of smugness in his eyes. The boy was proud to be a chunin._

"_I have faith that you will be able to handle your responsibilities efficiently, and strive to become better for the sake of your subordinates."_

_Shikamaru finished zipping up the front and bowed a little, "Hai, Hokage-sama."_

_Naruto narrowed his eyes at the aged Hokage. 'What is he playing at?'_

_Kakashi and Asuma were perplexed a bit as well. It was the procedure that when more than one chunin qualifies from their village, they are promoted at the same time, not individually. If both Naruto and Shikamaru were going to be promoted, they would have been promoted at the same time. As such, only Shikamaru got promoted to chunin. If Naruto wasn't getting the promotion, then why was he here?_

_Their question was answered a moment later._

"_Uzumaki Naruto," Hiruzen intoned, causing Naruto to raise his head a bit, "For your outstanding performance in the chunin exams, having a major hand in failing the invasion by defeating the Sand's jinchuriki and foiling Orochimaru's plans by countering his technique and thus, saving your village, I hereby grant you the promotion to Jonin."_

_There was a pin drop silence in the office. Asuma's jaw had dropped open, and his cigarette had fallen on the ground. Shikamaru was also looking at the Hokage in shock. Kakashi's single visible eye had widened so much it looked as if it were about to fall out. Granted, Naruto played a major role in stopping not only the sand's invasion, but Orochimaru as well. Hell, Kakashi would be hard pressed to beat just the sand jinchuriki, and Orochimaru was totally out of his league, even with his sharingan. He was certain that there was no way Naruto won't be promoted to chunin, but skipping it and directly becoming a jonin? That was a lot of responsibilities for someone of his age. _

"_Hokage-sama, are you sure that Naruto is ready for the burden that comes with the position?"_

_Asuma's voice snapped Kakashi out of his thoughts. He looked over to Naruto, who had raised in eyebrows in surprise. Poor kid must have been caught totally unawares, he mused. But as he thought about it, Naruto was more than qualified for the position. All the time he spent with Naruto as a team, Naruto had shown all the qualities of a formidable ninja, both in mind and body. Not to mention, he was a leader in the making. 'He is better than I was at his age,' he thought. During his time with Minato-sensei, he had thought that he was more than ready to be a jonin and a leader. Oh, how wrong he had been._

_He had been a total douchebag in those days._

_Hiruzen gave a nod and turned to Naruto, "Naruto, do you think you are ready?"_

_Naruto snapped out of his shock and looked down in thought, carefully thinking over his answer. "I always believed that I would become a Jonin one day, Hokage-sama. I never expected the day to arrive this early, though. However, if there's one thing that I have learned about life, is that it has a knack of catching you off guard. All you can do is be prepared at all times. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best."_

_Hiruzen gave a nod in agreement. "So what is your answer?"_

_Naruto took a deep breath and relaxed. "I'll do my best, Hokage-sama."_

_Hiruzen smiled proudly when he saw the rock-hard determination in Naruto's eyes. There was no doubt that Naruto would let him down. "I'll hold you to your word, Jonin Uzumaki Naruto."_

_He went around his table and took out a storage scroll from his drawer. He put it on the table and opened it, pushing some chakra into it. In a puff of smoke, the unsealed object was revealed to the room. A vest with much darker shade of green, like Asuma and Kakashi. Hiruzen picked it up and walked back around the table, handing it to Naruto with both hands. "Congratulations."_

_As Naruto took the vest, he was surprised to note that it was exactly his size, if not a bit bigger. He turned questioning eyes to Hiruzen, who just winked and whispered as if it was a secret. "They always fit," was the cryptic comment._

_Naruto snorted softly and took off his half sleeves jacket, revealing the full sleeves, high collar black t-shirt. As he sealed it into a scroll and put it in his hip pouch, Shikamaru muttered from beside him, "How in the hell are you not sweating in all that black?"_

_Naruto shrugged, in a way that looked oddly graceful. "There's so much you can do when you are a master of seals, Shika. My clothes have temperature seals scribed inside of them, to keep my body cool and at optimum temperature at all times. Pretty 'cool', won't you say?"_

_Shikamaru groaned while the Hokage chuckled, "That was terrible."_

_Asuma murmured to Kakashi, "I'd kill for something like that."_

_Kakashi replied back, "Me too."_

_Naruto finished zipping up the vest, and Hiruzen, Kakashi and Asuma barely kept their jaws from falling. If not for his height and hairstyle, no one would have been able to tell the difference between him and the Yondaime. Even the clothes looked identical. _

_Naruto seemed to read their minds as he spoke up, pointing towards the photo frame of his father, "Let me guess, I look exactly like him, don't I?" _

"_Y-Yes," Hiruzen stuttered as Naruto walked up to the frame. The occupants of the room watched curiously, wanting to see what Naruto would do._

_Naruto gazed into the stone cold eyes of his father. The same eyes that sent enemies running in the opposite direction, and the same ones that he was sure that were full of love when he was brought into this world. "I'll make you proud," he whispered so softly that even a dog present in the room would have been hard pressed to hear it._

_Then, as if a switch had been flipped, he turned back grinning. "So, now that I'm a jonin, I have a question for you, Kakashi-sensei."_

_Kakashi smiled, "You know, you don't really have to call me sensei anymore, we're equals now, as you said."_

_Asuma grinned and gave him a thumbs up, "Same here, Naruto!"_

_Naruto bit the inside of his mouth, "Alright, Kakashi it is. What burden of the jonin position was Asuma talking about?"_

_Kakashi raised a stunned eyebrow in response, "Well uh….you see…..Asuma can tell you!"_

_Asuma sputtered, being suddenly shoved into spotlight, "What! I mean…..uh, well the burden is quite large….."_

_Naruto smirked and folded his hands, while Shikamaru looked on curiously. Hiruzen just put his hands behind his back and enjoyed the show. He knew that Kakashi just lazed around all day and read Icha Icha, while Asuma just played shogi with Shikamaru majority of the time while the rest of his team trained. The time that was left was spent with Kurenai._

_Naruto waved a hand, "Never mind, I'll see it for myself." Putting a hand around Shikamaru's shoulders, he guided the shadow user to the door. "Come on, Shikamaru. We've got to rub this in everyone's faces! The two dead lasts were the first to become chunin and Jonin!" _

_Shikamaru tried to get Naruto's arm off his shoulder, "Let go of me, you blonde, troublesome bastard! This is all your fault!"_

"_Really?! How come you're not happy at your promotion!"_

"_Promotion means there is only more work that I would have to do!"_

_As the two bickered and walked away, Asuma took a deep breath of his stick and exhaled, "Wow, that was a close one."_

_Kakashi shook his head, "He really gets you with his comments sometimes."_

"_Actually, he may just have hit the nail on the head," Hiruzen piped in. "You two really don't look like you have a 'burden'."_

_Both of them turned at him, annoyed. "You really can't say anything, Hokage-sama. Your burden increases each second," Kakashi said, pointing to the growing paperwork._

_Hiruzen grinded his teeth in frustration, "Where in the seven levels of hell is this COMING FROM?!"_

_**Construction site**_

_It was break time, and the rookies were all sitting together, eating their lunches. Ino and chatting with each other, for once not obsessing over Sasuke. Hinata was shyly eating her lunch as well, making small conversation with Tenten beside her. Lee wasn't sitting with the rookies, opting to sit with Gai-sensei. Kiba was animatedly chatting with Chouji, with Shino quietly sitting beside them and speaking in between sometimes. Sasuke sat a bit further from the group, eating slowly while in deep thought, but not completely unaware of the group's conversation._

"_-and then he unleashed a huge tornado of water out of thin air! Can you believe that?!"_

_Chouji vigorously nodded as he finished off the last item of his lunch. "I never knew Naruto had such a high affinity for water."_

"_We don't know many things about Naruto. Why? Because Naruto hid his true strength from us all this time. However, from his performance in the chunin exams, it is likely that Naruto is jonin level at least," Shino pitched in._

_Kiba scratched his chin, "For once, I agree with you. Speaking of Naruto, he has been gone for a while. Where is he?"_

_Chouji spoke up in agreement, "Now that I think about it, even Shikamaru has been gone for a while."_

_Their conversation attracted others' attention. Hinata, Tenten and Sakura looked at them curiously, while Ino was more vocal in her curiosity. "Yeah, where is that deadweight? He must be slacking off, leaving all the work to us!"_

_Shino pushed up his glasses, "Not likely. That's because Asuma-sensei and Kakashi-sensei are absent from here as well."_

_Ino huffed and crossed her arms, "Asuma-sensei is no better sometimes! And I haven't heard any better about Kakashi-sensei from Sakura."_

_Sakura nodded, "True, Kakashi-sensei is perhaps the laziest person I have seen. But Naruto never slacks off, like ever!"_

"_A-Ano, N-Naruto-kun is very hardworking," Hinata meekly said, poking her fingers and blushing at merely the thought of the blonde._

"_Wow, people are talking about me even though I just got promoted!"_

_The eyes of all the rookies widened when the familiar voice caught them off guard. It came from above them, so they turned to look and promptly dropped their jaws._

_There stood Naruto and Shikamaru, in flak jackets. Naruto had his arm around a grumbling Shikamaru. That was the first thing that everyone noticed._

"_Y-You went to get promoted?"_

_Naruto chuckled at Ino's stutter and they both dropped down in front of them, allowing the rookies to get a better look at the two of them._

_Shikamaru now wore a light green vest over his clothes, a mark of his new rank as a chunin. However, what perplexed them was that Naruto was wearing a similar vest, but instead of light green, it was a darker shade. Sakura smiled at them._

"_So you are now a chunin, huh Naruto?"_

_Naruto looked like he was barely keeping from grinning full out. "Not exactly. Hokage-sama saw fit to promote me straight to Jonin."_

"_HUH?!"_

_That was the exclamation that came from Ino, Sakura and Kiba. Shikamaru scowled and shrugged Naruto's arm off, walking to join a gaping Chouji. As always, Shino was unperturbed. Hinata blushed a darker shade of red upon seeing how good Naruto looked in the jacket._

"_You got promoted straight to jonin?!"_

"_Is that even possible?!"_

"_No fair!"_

_Of course, Naruto patiently answered the questions, and accepted the congratulations. Apparently, Shikamaru's promotion was not that interesting as Naruto's. He looked over to Sasuke, who was carefully looking at him. _

_Sasuke felt a twinge of jealousy course through him when he saw that Naruto had been promoted straight to jonin, but nothing more than that. Rational thought took over and he realized that Naruto only got what he deserved. Naruto deserved more than chunin, and Sasuke didn't know whether to feel happy for his friend, or disgusted with himself for being so weak._

"_Congratulations," he reluctantly said, not meeting Naruto's smirking face. 'You may be strong now Naruto, but don't think you'll remain the strongest. I'll be dammed if I let you get ahead of me anymore!'_

"_I heard you beat Gaara, Naruto. Neji didn't stand a chance in the first place, did he?" Tenten asked with a sad smile._

_Naruto mirrored her expression, "No, he didn't."_

_Naruto turned to Sakura, who just smiled and gave him a warm hug. Because Naruto was five inches taller than her, his chin rested on her head. "I'm happy for you, Naruto," she said softly. She knew Naruto would go far. All she could do for him is support him._

_Naruto returned the hug with a smile, "I'm so glad that you do."_

_Naruto released the hug and looked towards Hinata, who froze at the gentle smile on his face. Naruto mentally chuckled. He wasn't stupid; he knew Hinata had a huge crush on him since the beginning of academy. He only made the connection from their interactions that Hinata liked him recently, after he first kissed Temari. 'Sorry Hinata, that I could not return your feelings. My heart belongs to Temari now. You deserve someone who will understand and return your feelings. Someone better than me.'_

_He walked over to Hinata, stopping in right in front of her. He knew that if he grabbed her in a hug as well, she might very well faint. "Hinata," he smiled, "You look a bit under the heat. Are you well?"_

_Hinata only turned redder, "Y-Yes, N-Naruto-kun. C-Congratulations on your p-promotion."_

_Naruto chuckled. She was just to easy to embarrass, something he might have to break her out of. He then noticed Ino sauntering up to him, squeezing his arm, "So, Naruto. Now that you have become a jonin, what will you do?"_

_Naruto rose an eyebrow. This wasn't how Ino usually behaved with him, invading his personal space. He rather preferred Temari's touch rather than Ino's. "It's better that you stick to Sasuke, Ino," he gently removed her arm. _

_Ino pouted, "You're no fun at all." Then suddenly, she narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing him. _

"_What's wrong?"_

_His words were met with silence as she continued studying his face intensely. Several seconds later, she finally spoke in a murmur, "You really do look like him."_

_He was not expecting that. "What?"_

"_The Yondaime Hokage," she emphasized. Shikamaru yawned from behind her, "Of course he would, you troublesome blonde. They are father and son."_

_Ino's eyebrow twitched as she slowly turned around, "What the hell, Shikamaru!"_

"_Alright everyone, break's over! Get back to work!" Naruto announced. He was perplexed when he saw everyone looking at him oddly. "What?"_

_Kiba pointed a finger at him, "Don't go ordering us, teme!"_

_Naruto tsked and shook his finger side to side, as if addressing a child, "Be careful how you speak, Kiba. As your superior, you have no choice but to follow my orders."_

_Kiba sputtered angrily, but reluctantly got up from his spot along with everyone. Shikamaru walked up to Naruto with a smirk. "Should you really be doing that, right after you've been promoted?"_

_Naruto gave him a puzzled look as he walked over to a pile of rubble himself, "What are you talking about? I'm simply doing my duty as a Jonin of this village. You get to work as well, Shika."_

_Shikamaru scoffed, but turned around and headed to work as well. "Good thing he's working as well, or I would have socked him in the jaw," he muttered._

_**Flashback end**_

The next four days passed interestingly. News of his promotion to Jonin seemed to have spread overnight and the next morning when he reported for work, every person that he met was congratulating him. The most annoying thing about it was that they addressed him as "Namikaze-sama", or "Uzumaki-sama" once he corrected them.

His natural smile had become totally forced after he was congratulated by the twentieth person in the same manner. Eventually, he just used _shunshin _to reach his destination, but even there people were present just to congratulate him. It eventually became so annoying that he had to excuse himself to the Hokage's office.

"Man, if this is what celebrities have to deal with, I feel sorry for them," Naruto muttered as he sat in front of Hiruzen. The old man simply chuckled as he continued doing the paperwork in front of him. For once, he enjoyed doing the verbose bullshit. Naruto being the source of amusement might have been a factor.

"Better get used to it, for in the future, things will only grow," Hiruzen countered while signing another form.

Naruto gave a sigh of frustration, "Right now, I want to put all my efforts into rebuilding the village. It's not helping if the people start talking to my shadow clones as well!"

Hiruzen lifted his face to look at the blonde. Intense frustration was radiating from him. His muscles were all tight, shoulders tensed up; the boy looked like if someone congratulated him right now, he would probably coil up like a spring with tension.

"Then perhaps you would like a diversion?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow, "I could use a diversion."

Hiruzen got up from his chair and walked towards Minato's photo frame. Naruto watched curiously as Hiruzen sped through hand signs and pressed his hand on the frame. A click sounded and the frame opened up into some sort of safe. After pressing some keys, the safe opened up and Hiruzen pulled out a scroll. He closed the frame and blew air on the scroll to get rid of the dust.

"This is something that the Yondaime entrusted me with. I believe it belongs to you," he said as he passed it onto Naruto. Naruto recognized the blood seal right away. Cutting his thumb, he swiped it across the seal. He expected it to be a storage seal, but instead of an object, writing became visible.

'**Those look like instructions to reach certain places.'**

Naruto hummed in agreement as he studied the co-ordinates. As he studied them some more, making numerous calculations in his head, pieces of a puzzle started to come together. They were written in a way that no ordinary shinobi could crack. Only someone armed with the knowledge of the sealing arts could solve the puzzle to these. _'Nine co-ordinates in total. Each in a specific location and direction in relation to the village.'_

He abruptly stood up, "I'll take my leave, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen watched Naruto leave with a pensive look. Even he did not know what was on that scroll. He resumed his paperwork. Perhaps Naruto may see it fit to tell him.

XXXXXXX

Naruto sat down just outside the village gates, shaking his head at how late the man was. He looked over to the gate guards, who were animatedly whispering to each other, not-so-subtly pointing at him. He scoffed; he had become the talk of the village in such a short time. Nothing new, but it was better than the glares and frowns of the village.

He sighed; he never knew Jiraiya had it in him to be late. Considering he was the one who approached him for this mission.

_**Flashback, yesterday**_

_He had just returned from his investigation of the co-ordinates on the scroll. He flashed directly back into his apartment, and damn near killed the intruder standing before me._

"_OI, OI, IT'S ME!"_

_Naruto stopped slashing the kunai, "Ero-sennin?"_

_Jiraiya groaned, "What will it take you to call me by my proper name?"_

_Naruto shrugged and put his kunai away, "Serious situations, I guess. Besides, I don't see what's wrong with having an affectionate term to call my godfather."_

_Jiraiya snorted as he sat back down on the couch, "Affectionate, my ass."_

_Naruto removed his shoes and went for some water, "Anyways, would you care to explain why you broke the security seals to my apartment?"_

"_You really ought to improve up on that amateur job. I know you are capable of doing better."_

_Naruto huffed, "Those seals are meant to stop normal shinobi and civilians, not a seal master like you. And you haven't answered my question."_

_Jiraiya suddenly grinned, "Brat, you made Jonin on your first try into the chunin exams! I'm damn proud of you! I heard the tale from Sarutobi-sensei. Defeating a jinchuriki all by yourself and then sending my old teammate running with his tail between his legs right after defeating the said jinchuriki…I'm so proud of you, and your parents would be too!"_

_Naruto smiled at the enthusiastic man, "I'm sure they are. Now why are you here?"_

_At once, Jiraiya's expression turned serious, "I've got a mission of utmost importance, and I want you to come with me."_

_Naruto sat down across from his godfather, "What's the mission?"_

"_To find the future hokage of the village and bring her back."_

_Naruto did not say anything immediately. He thought over it for a few seconds. A female hokage? Out of the village? There was only one female who came to Naruto's mind as he thought of the circumstances. "Are we, by any chance, going to retrieve Senju Tsunade?"_

_Jiraiya seemed taken aback, "Y-Yeah, but how did you know who we were to retrieve?"_

_Naruto shrugged, "Come on, it's really not that hard to figure out. A female candidate, absent from the village and strong enough to be considered for the position of the Hokage? There is only one Konoha kunoichi that fits that description, and it's Senju Tsunade."_

_Jiraiya shook his head, "You really know your facts, don't you? Most of your generation doesn't even know about us."_

_Naruto rubbed his neck sheepishly and chuckled, "I like reading is all." Then he turned serious and asked, "Even if I agree to come with you, what's in it for me?"_

"_I'll teach you a new jutsu- A-rank, some really good stuff."_

_Naruto wasn't impressed, "Is that all? Just one?"_

"_Brat, this jutsu is really not your average jutsu. But just because I'm such a generous man, I'll throw in one or two more for you. You good with that?"_

"_Well, I guess I can't say no to a Sannin. When do we leave?"_

"_Tomorrow, one in the afternoon. Oh, and before I forget, we have to talk about one more thing on this mission," Jiraiya grinned._

"_What's that?"_

_But the man was already gone. Naruto shook his head. He had better get some rest for tomorrow's mission._

_**Flashback end**_

"Wake up, brat!"

Naruto slowly opened his eyes to see Jiraiya standing in front of him, an impatient look on his face. "This is no time for sleeping!"

Naruto snorted loudly and got up, "You're the one to talk. I've been here since one! It's two now- you're late!"

Jiraiya folded his hands defensively, "I was collecting some very important, last minute information."

"For your book," Naruto mumbled as he began walking.

"Hey, watch it!"

"And it's a wonder how you managed to stretch your last minute into an hour," Naruto continued, neatly dodging the blow to his head.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 20

**Author's note: Hey guys! Just before we begin, a quick note before we begin. I'll take my time with this arc. **

**A quick answer to a query of whether I will follow the canon or branch out:-**

**More or less. I started this story with the intent to see how the canon would progress if Naruto was more like his father. I might do some short prompts that deviate from the story once in a while. Eg. What if this Naruto met his father/ team Minato?**

**Something along those lines or something similar. I don't know, I'll leave it up to you guys what you want to see.**

They had been walking for over two hours, with one short break in between. Nothing had been out of the ordinary, and shockingly, there had been periods of silence where neither of them would say anything, opting to enjoy the silence. Everything was good.

Until Naruto finally decided that he should do something productive to pass his time.

"Hey, ero-sennin," he called, gaining the other man's irritated attention. Without waiting for him to speak, he continued, "Do you know the reason why we are looking for Tsunade?"

Jiraiya gave him a confused look, "I thought you knew about her being the new Hokage? Or have you forgotten?"

Naruto scoffed, "I have a photographic memory. I forget nothing," in a more serios voice he continued, "But it's not about that. I'm asking whether you know why she abandoned the village?"

Jiraiya flinched at the bluntness of the statement. As much as he wanted to correct Naruto, there was nothing he could say to refute the statement. He knew about Tsunade's losses in the last war, and why she chose to leave the village, but Naruto's words carried a harsh sense of truth to them.

"I do, but it's not my place to tell," he replied.

Naruto frowned, but said, "Fair enough." If he did not want to tell, it was fine. He could learn it later on his own. But there was something he needed to know. "Is she a missing nin?"

Jiraiya almost missed his step at the question, turning to glare at the blonde. "What?!"

Naruto was not at all perturbed by Jiraiya's sudden anger. He reiterated, "I asked if she was a missing nin."

Jiraiya was indignant, "Do you even realize what you are saying?! She is related to the first two hokages by blood and the student of the third, not to mention one of the Legendary Sannin, who by the way, were granted travelling rights by the Daimyo of Hi no kuni himself!"

Naruto adjusted the strap of his backpack a little. This was the first time he was wearing one, "I know that, trust me. The books are full about the feats of you three. Tsunade's legendary prowess as a medic is known throughout the world, but answer me this. She has not stepped a foot in the village for the last ten years, and by extension, not performed a single mission for it. Once I asked jiji that why was it that you were allowed to spend so much time outside the village. He told me that you were only allowed to do so for you had a spy network to maintain, right?"

Jiraiya frowned, but was still confused as to where Naruto was leading him but nodded nonetheless.

"Which means that you are only allowed to travel as long as you keep doing missions for the village. If we go by that context, Tsunade has been abusing her Sannin travelling rights. Not only has she been out of contact and sight of the village, but she hasn't done a single mission for Konoha for quite an extended period of time. Not unlike a missing nin, won't you say?"

Jiraiya had narrowed his eyes at the end of Naruto's question. Naruto's words felt like ice cold water rushing down his back. Everything he had said had been brutally correct. But it was his teammate they were talking about! And he would be dammed if he let anyone talk about her this way without knowing what she went through.

"Watch your mouth, brat. You don't know what she has been through!"

Jiraiya's tone held warning, and Naruto took that as his cue to drop the topic. It was obvious as sunlight that Jiraiya deeply cared for Tsunade if he was defending her like that. But from Jiraiya's statement, he was able to learn that Tsunade went through quite a few losses, and she left the village to have some time to herself. But ten years was way too long, and if they were retrieving her, it was quite clear for him to see that Tsunade had no real intention of coming back to the village herself. But there was something he still couldn't quite understand.

Everyone had dead people, but that was no reason for them to be stuck on them for such a long time. For a seasoned shinobi like Tsunade, she should have been able to let go and carry on with her life. So why didn't she?

He would have to learn for it himself.

After fifteen more minutes, a town came into their sight. "Alright brat," Jiraiya's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, "We're approaching a travelling town, so here are the rules. Since Tsunade is quite elusive of the shinobi sent for her, blending in is necessary from this point on. So remove your jonin jacket and Hitai-ate."

Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "Oh, sure. Bright blonde hair is totally blending in. Not to mention a large, gorilla sized man in bright red clothes and white hair longer than an average girl."

Jiraiya whacked Naruto's head, causing the blonde to yelp, "Don't mock the hair, brat! And I blend in very well, thank you very much!"

Naruto sighed as he sealed his jacket and Hitai-ate into a scroll and put it in his backpack. He took out a single, black colored sash, tying it around his head like the hitai-ate. "Sometimes I wonder how is it that you became a spy master."

Jiraiya smirked, "I have my secrets."

Naruto shook his head as he took out his black and red, half sleeves jacket as well. He always felt incomplete without one. "I'm sure you do. Is this good enough?"

Jiraiya inspected him with a critical eye, "It's passable."

Naruto frowned, "Why, what's wrong with this?"

Jiraiya smirked and pointed a finger at his godson. "Oh, nothing's actually wrong. But trust me, you'll be attracting a lot of attention from the female kind with that kind of look."

Naruto froze for a moment. He took a moment to properly blurt it out. "Say what?"

Jiraiya laughed heartily as they closed in on the town, "Don't worry, gaki. It's actually a good thing. You don't get many chances to appreciate the female body. The lips, the curves…"

Naruto made a disgusted face as Jiraiya's expression turned into a look worthy of a super pervert. For kami's sake, the man was making grabbing motions in the air!

He did not need to be an expert to know what Jiraiya was imagining. He kicked the man in the shin. "Get a hold of yourself!"

Jiraiya was the one who yelped this time, clutching his shin painfully and hopping on one foot. "You'll pay for this, Naruto!"

Naruto was smirking as he continued walking ahead. _'I probably know more about how the female body feels up close than you do, Jiraiya.' _His steamy make out session with Temari was one of his most treasured memories.

XXXXXXX

Naruto and Jiraiya wouldn't have been in such a mood if they knew just what was happening in Konoha.

Two intruders slipped quietly into the village, undetected. They were covered with black coats with a pattern of red clouds, quietly sitting down in a tea shop. They wore wide-brimmed straw hats to cover the parts of their faces shown above the high collar of the cloaks.

The shorter one of them, who was eating dango, was the first to notice. He motioned to the larger one, the three jonin who were eying them. Quietly, they paid their tab and left the shop.

"We should leave. It appears that the jinchuriki isn't here," a low, monotone voice said to his partner.

The cloaked strangers kept walking. They were passing a lake when they both stopped. Silently, they turned to face the tow newcomers, Suma and Kurenai.

"You two don't seem to be from the village….Who are you guys?" Asuma asked in a voice that meant all business.

"It's been a long time, Asuma-san, Kurenai-san," the shorter one commented in a rather pleasant tone of voice.

"So you are a shinobi of this village," Asuma commented, puffing on his cigarette. "What did you come here for?"

The shorter of the duo lifted his straw hat slightly, revealing his eyes, both of which had a blazing Sharingan in them, which made Asuma and Kurenai go wide-eyed.

"No doubt about it..." Asuma muttered as the shinobi removed his straw hat and unbuttoned his cloak slightly, revealing a young and handsome face with black hair, lines under his eyes, and a Konoha forehead protector with a slash through it. "Uchiha Itachi..."

"So, you're already acquainted with Itachi-san, huh? Then, I also need to introduce myself," the taller of the duo said as he removed his own straw hat, to reveal a blue-skinned man with very sharp teeth, beady eyes, and what looked like gills on his cheekbones. "Hoshigaki Kisame. Nice to make your acquaintance."

"You're not making an acquaintances here," Asuma said with a small smirk on his face. "It looks like we've got the task to take you on."

"Itachi-san, your home village doesn't seem to like you very much," Kisame commented.

"I've also heard of you," Kurenai said, staring at Kisame. "Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of Kirigakure no Sato... A renegade ninja wanted by numerous countries, including the Water Country, for assassinating a feudal lord, and sabotage, as well as various other crimes..."

"You boys are listed as S-rank criminals in the Bingo Book, you know," Asuma said, the smirk disappearing. "Itachi, coming back to this village after what you pulled..."

"Asuma-san, Kurenai-san, I have no wish to kill you," Itachi said. "Please do not interfere with my affairs."

"Can't really just walk away," Asuma said. "What is your purpose here?"

Suddenly, Kisame grabbed his sword and swung it down with enough force to crack the ground when it hit, kicking up a lot of dust.

"This person is quite annoying," the shark-man said, a grin on his face. "Shall I kill him?"

"It does look like we can't leave the village without a fight," Itachi said, not looking away from Asuma for a second. "But don't overdo it. Your style attracts too much attention."

"It's settled, then..." Kisame said as he lifted his sword again to rest it against his shoulder.

For a few moments, there was silence as everyone just stared at each other. Then, Kisame moved with incredible speed, swinging at Asuma, who drew a pair of trench knives and blocked the swing.

Asuma gritted his teeth as he struggled, the sword coming lower and lower.

'I'm being pushed down by just the tip of his sword... What kind of monster is he?'

Slowly, the sword was placed against Asuma's shoulder, which made Kisame grin. The shark-man pulled the sword back, making Asuma grunt in pain when he felt something tear against his shoulder, looking to see the bandages coming off the sword's tip, revealing not a blade, but a series of downward-facing scales running along the entirety of its length.

"My great sword Samehada doesn't cut... it shaves!" Kisame announced with a grin.

Suddenly, Asuma grinned slightly, despite the pain.

"Kurenai, you're late."

Kisame's eyes widened as it appeared as though he suddenly started sinking into the ground, but Itachi looked quite unaffected, even as roots shot up from the ground and wrapped around him, a tree forming behind him. Above the Uchiha, Kurenai came out of the tree trunk, raising a kunai.

"This is the end," Kurenai announced, stabbing the kunai downward.

A blink was all it took, and Kurenai suddenly found that the tables had turned. All of a sudden she was the one wrapped up in roots, and before her stood Itachi, looking emotionless as usual.

"Genjutsu of this level have no effect on me."

'This is... Genjutsu counter!' Kurenai thought as Itachi drew a kunai. She closed her eyes and bit her own lip, drawing blood. The pain was enough to cancel the Genjutsu, and she opened her eyes in time to see Itachi coming at her. She ducked, the swipe from the kunai only managing to cut a few of her hairs, but that wasn't enough. A foot came flying at her at an intense speed, and she raised her arms to block. The kick was powerful, though, and sent her flying out over the river.

"Kurenai!" Asuma yelled, looking in her direction, which made Kisame chuckle as he raised his sword again.

"Not paying attention will be the end of you!"

The sword came swinging down just as Asuma turned to him, but Asuma was caught off guard so easily. He leaned to the side to avoid the swipe of the large sword, and slashed Kisame's face. The aforementioned nin's eyes widened as blood trickled from a small cut that was made by Asuma, with his wind-covered blades.

Itachi looked down at Kurenai with dispassionate eyes, "Nicely blocked, Kurenai-san. But this is the end-"

"-for you."

Itachi's eyes narrowed and glanced to the side, behind him where the owner of the said voice was standing. Kakashi glanced at itachi's back with his sharingan. There was no doubt at all that even if he held a blade to Itachi's back, the sharingan wielder was anything but helpless against him.

He grimly thought, _'Fighting Itachi is no pushover. He must have gotten stronger than when he left the village. I'll have to assume a worst-case scenario in this fight.'_

**Time skip**

Kakashi was barely standing as he gazed at the two missing nin. He was out of strength, breath and chakra. He had made a foolish mistake of looking into Itachi's eyes, and now he was done for. _'Just what…the hell…..was that?' _Kakashi tried to analyze just how did Itachi possess such a strong genjutsu. His eye certainly didn't have this ability.

Itachi had called the technique Tsukuyomi. A genjutsu of his design that was somehow connected to space-time, for Itachi had tortured him for over seventy-two hours in there, while in reality, only a second had passed. He didn't know just how Itachi had did it, but it had clearly worked. Kakashi was out of the fight. He fell down to his hands and knees. _'No! I can't black out now! The reinforcements should be almost here! I'll have to stall them….'_

"Why are…you two….here?"

Itachi spoke as if he did not fight at all, "We're after the legacy of the Yondaime Hokage."

Kakashi wasn't surprised at all, while Asuma's and Kurenai's eyes had widened. By this time, it was no secret to the whole village who that was. Asuma muttered, "You are after the Kyuubi inside Naruto, aren't you?"

The silence was enough of an answer. Kakashi knew he had to stall them for a little more time.

"I know you aren't the only ones who are moving around. The name of your organization…..it's Akatsuki, isn't it?"

Itachi's eyes widened imperceptibly, while Kisame had a more visible reaction. A surprised grunt escaped his throat as he stared hard at Kakashi. Kakashi mentally smirked. It was a good thing that Jiraiya-sama had told him about the organization that was after people like Naruto.

"Kill him, Kisame," Itachi suddenly ordered.

The blue man grinned savagely, "With pleasure." He raised his sword and blazed towards Kakashi, intent on chopping him into pieces.

"KONOHA GOURIKI SENPUU!"

The kick caught Kisame right in the face, sending him skidding across the surface of the lake, back to Itachi. Kisame righted himself, and was met with an odd sight.

A man in a green, spandex one-piece suit with a jonin flak jacket. His most noticeable features were his bowl cut hair and thick eyebrows. Kakashi sighed in relief. _'Gai….'_

"Who are you?!"

Gai settled into his taijutsu stance, "Konoha's noble blue beast….Maito Gai!"

Kisame snorted, "You should take a closer look at yourself. You look more like an odd beast."

Gai didn't seem to hear him as he easily lifted Kakashi onto his shoulders and said, "You two! Open your eyes, but don't look Itachi in the eyes!"

Asuma and Kurenai opened their eyes, taking in the scene. Itachi closely analyzed the scene and weighed his odds. Gai was exceptionally strong, and he had ways to fight the sharingan. Also, he must have signaled the reinforcements on his way to here. They needed to get out of here.

"Enough, Kisame," he softly said. When his partner looked at him in confusion, he said, "We've attracted enough attention. We did not come here to start a war. We're leaving."

Kisame sighed in genuine disappointment as he put away his sword, "And I was just starting to get excited…but it seems we have no choice."

Itachi and Kisame then disappeared.

Asuma and Kurenai relaxed as Guy shifted Kakashi a bit. He turned around and said with a serious voice that he rarely used. "I don't need to tell you that the return of Itachi to this village must be kept a secret from a certain someone, do I?"

Asuma and Kurenai nodded, "We'll tell the others to keep their mouths shut around him."

Guy nodded and then smiled, "Good, then I will get Kakashi to the Hospital."

XXXXXXX

Naruto sighed in mild irritation as he spun his kunai in his fingers almost lazily, sitting on his bed in the hotel room he and Jiraiya had rented for the night. This was only supposed to be a small stop in the town- until Jiraiya had spotted a pretty young woman who had winked at him. Almost immediately, Jiraiya had waved him off to find a hotel room for the night while he 'gathered some information.' Naruto snorted, he knew damn well Jiraiya was following after the woman from earlier like a lovesick puppy.

And he thought that this was an urgent mission.

Still, there was something that Naruto had noticed when the woman had winked at Jiraiya. First off, Jiraiya was not even that good looking. He was just an old man in his fifties. No sane young woman would so much as even look in his direction that way the woman from earlier did.

Second, the woman was pretty. Pretty as in above average pretty. She wore a strapless dress that was designed to show off her well-endowed chest and long legs, along with high heels. She could have gotten any man, but she went straight for Jiraiya. She did not even glance at the other men that were standing in the lobby with them. That was another thing that rang alarm bells in his mind. Also, it looked as if that woman was dressed to entice, or seduce someone, unless she was heading out on a date, that too alone. Why would a woman dress up to entice Jiraiya?

Also, Jiraiya had been correct in the regard that he would attract female attention. As soon as they had entered the town, whenever they would pass by a girl close to his age, she would blush and giggle. It was slightly confusing and scary to be honest. One girl was brave enough to even come to him and asked if he wanted to spend some time with her and her friends. He had barely kept from freaking out, and Jiraiya had just walked off somewhere, leaving him alone to deal with the girl. Thankfully, Naruto was able to gently let her down by using the classic excuse- he was here to train with his master and the time for training was drawing to a close. The girl had been visibly disappointed, but had understood. Surprising him, she had whispered an address in his ear, telling that if he was free, he was allowed to come over there. _And_ she had kissed him on the cheek before leaving! Who the hell kisses random strangers on cheeks?!

Before Naruto could think up on this further, the knock of a door snapped him out of his thoughts. His eyes narrowed as he sensed two large chakra signatures outside his door, one astoundingly enough, a bit bigger than his own. The other one, he sensed, was shockingly similar to his teammate, Sasuke.

There was no way he was going to answer the door himself. His danger sense was ringing bells in his head.

He soundlessly created a shadow clone, who began to move towards the door. His footsteps were loud enough for Naruto to cover his own as he flipped out of the window. He knew that whoever was outside wouldn't be fooled by it, but it would have to do. He doubted that they were here just to say hello.

He would have flashed over to Jiraiya to get him, but that idea had a risk. First of all, if he suddenly flashed in the middle of a crowd and disappeared with a person, it would cause panic in the crowd.

Yeah, not happening.

'_Looks like I would have to give him a 'noticeable' signal to arrive here,' _Naruto thought as he flipped up to the roof and headed to the window at the end of the corridor.

'Naruto' opened the door and found himself looking up into a pair of a fully matured sharingan. His first thought was Sasuke, but then his thought process kicked in. First, this guy was taller than him, and Sasuke was four inches shorter than him. Second, his hairstyle was different, and he had tear troughs under his eyes. Third, he wore a Konoha hitai-ate which was slashed, indicating he was a missing nin.

Yep, he was facing Uchiha itachi.

'_Shit! I never thought I would have to meet Uchiha Itachi of all people!' _The clone thought as he diverted his eyes from the sharingan to Itachi's forehead. He carefully kept his face blank of any emotions.

"To think this boy contains the Kyuubi….." Came a voice from beside Itachi, as a very distinct figure came into view. This man was taller than Jiraiya, and he had very obvious blue skin and shark like features, such as facial markings that resembled like fish gills. He was also carrying a very large, bandaged blade. His clothing matched Itachi's- a long black cloak with red clouds on it. He was also wearing a slashed Kiri hitai-ate, making him a missing nin.

'_Unless I'm mistaken, which is a very low chance, this guy is a former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. And what's the deal with his chakra?! It's almost as big as Prime's, maybe even a bit bigger! And, they know about Kurama, so I can guess they are here for him.'_

"Naruto-kun, you're coming with us," Itachi said in a monotone as he gazed at his target. He was not expecting Naruto to look like this at all. No, he wasn't talking about how he was gazing at a literal, carbon copy of the Yondaime. He was talking about Naruto's stature.

He was expecting a genin, a twelve to thirteen year old. Naruto looked like he was almost fifteen and not a genin at all. Instead, Naruto's posture did not portray any fear or anxiety one might have when facing a S-rank criminal. He was smart, for he immediately averted his eyes to his forehead. The posture was straight, and very carefully guarded. Itachi might have thought he was relaxed, even, if not for the barely noticeable tensing of shoulders and the subsequent clenching of fists.

'Naruto' stared hard at Itachi. "Why?"

"…Let's go outside the room," Itachi opted to say. He watched, in silent approval, as 'Naruto' carefully stepped out of the room, keeping him and Kisame in his sights. He came to stand in front of them, keeping his feet slightly apart, and hands at his sides. 'Naruto' had no intention of running, for Prime should be here any moment now. His job was only to distract. So he began talking.

"Why do I have the honor of meeting Uchiha Itachi and a former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist?"

If Itachi was shocked, he didn't show it, because he was damn good at hiding his emotions. People found blank walls easier to read instead of him. Kisame, however, grinned.

"A smart one, aren't you?"

'Naruto' just folded his hands across his chest and gave the shark man a dry look, "I don't need to be smart in order to label you as one of the Seven Swordsmen. Your giant sword gives it away, not to mention the slashed hitai-ate."

Kisame turned to Itachi, "Itachi-san, it would be a bother to us if this kid keeps moving around. Perhaps I should chop off his legs?"

'Naruto' didn't even look the least disturbed at the threat. In fact….

"I dare you to try."

Kisame chuckled and slowly moved forward, clutching the handle of his sword. "Your bravado is amusing, but you must be a fool if you think you can stand and win against me."

Itachi watched as Kisame closed onto Naruto. Something was wrong here, he thought. Naruto looked like he won't be making a move anytime soon. He was relaxed, _too_ relaxed…

"Move Kisame!" The command was spoken softly, but it still carried power and urgency. Kisame heard it and was barely able to move in time, for 'Naruto' glowed and exploded with a bang, blasting the walls and any area near him.

Meanwhile, Naruto heard the bang and smirked from his position outside the window of the corridor. The explosion was something he hadn't taken into account, but it wasn't a bad thing either. The clone's job was only to distract the newcomers, but this works as well. A good thing the entire floor was empty. He would go through the memories later.

Itachi and Kisame stared at the spot where the clone used to be. "Exploding Kage Bunshin," Itachi whispered in the slightest wonder. It looks like Naruto was smarter than he previously thought, and very perceptive too. He had known the danger of them and had a shadow clone answer in his place. They had been talking to a shadow clone all this time.

Kisame gave a grunt of irritation as he looked at his slightly burnt hand. It had been way too close. "Looks like the jinchuriki is going to be more trouble than we thought," he muttered as he healed the burn with his chakra.

Itachi, on the other hand, was thinking what this could mean. Naruto was obviously not here. He was out and had left a shadow clone in his place to keep guard. That, or Naruto had somehow known they were here and had gone to call Jiraiya. But-

They both jumped a bit sideways, letting the bolt of red lightning pass in between them and collapse wall on the end of the corridor to splinters. Itachi and kisame turned their heads to see the real Naruto standing behind them, right hand extended and the other holding a kunai.

Naruto smirked at the looks on their faces, more like the look on Kisame's face. Itachi was as blank as empty paper. Kisame was baring his sharp teeth in annoyance. "I can't believe you fell for that!"

Apparently, Kisame did not like the mock at all. So one second he was standing beside Itachi, the other he was right in Naruto's personal space, sword ready to cut him. The power behind the strike was enough to shatter a piece of the wall behind him, and would have sliced Naruto in half.

_Keywords: Would have._

Kisame did not know of the danger sense Naruto possessed, nor of the slower perception it granted Naruto. The danger sense rang loudly, and the world had slowed down for Naruto as soon as Kisame had taken the step towards him. Naruto had watched in slow motion as Kisame flew towards him. He would have to give credit to the guy, for he was almost as fast as Kakashi, with the blade. So he was right in front of Naruto in only a second.

Oh, and neither Itachi nor Kisame knew of the marking Naruto had put on the other end of the corridor as a safety precaution.

Kisame shattered part of the wall in front of him with Samehada. He had intended to cut off the legs of the brat so he couldn't run anymore. But to his shock, he wasn't even standing in front of him anymore!

"Over here, slowpoke."

Kisame whirled around to see Naruto nonchalantly leaning against the wall on the opposite end of the corridor. Even Itachi couldn't conceal his surprise as his eyes were wide as well. Kisame's wide eyes reflected his thoughts clearly. _'How did he move so fast?! I didn't even see him moving!'_

Itachi's thoughts were a bit more sophisticated than his partner's. While it was a bit much to cut off Naruto's legs, it would certainly make their job easier. He had thought that Kisame had gotten Naruto with that strike, but he had dodged it! Not only that, but it looked like he barely put any effort into it! Even with his sharingan, he hadn't been able to track Naruto's movement, and that was speaking something since his sharingan was of the highest evolution. That was the speed Naruto had so nonchalantly pulled off. All he had seen was a tiny, almost unnoticeable flash of neon blue. It was almost like he had teleported…

Itachi's train of thought was brought to a sudden stop. _'Surely not…he couldn't have mastered __**that **__jutsu…there's no way…..'_

Kisame slowly walked back to where Itachi was standing, his face cleared of the shock from earlier. He could see from the look on Itachi's face that even he hadn't seen the boy move. He slowly grinned in excitement; this might be a challenge after all.

"It's been a long time…Sasuke."

XXXXXXX

Naruto may acted playful on the outside, but inside he was all serious. That sword…..he had felt as if it wasn't just taking his life. There was some sort of pull in that sword, but Naruto had flashed away before it could make contact. Seemingly, it could take chakra of its opponents. Also, Jiraiya should have reached here by now. He had caused two explosions- enough for Jiraiya to come here as fast as he could. He had activated his sensing, and he was sensing Jiraiya closing in fast. However, he sensed another person that caused a pit to form in his stomach. Why the hell was he here?!

"It's been a long time…Sasuke."

Naruto watched with narrowed eyes and a small hint of annoyance as he noticed Sasuke standing behind the two missing nin. Kisame turned around to glance at the newcomer as well. "Who?"

Sasuke represented the classic picture of a guy wanting revenge. Form straight, legs spread slightly apart, hands at the side and hair shadowing the front of his face. When he glanced up, Naruto could see it. The sharingan was blazing, and the burning hate in those eyes was unmistakable.

"Uchiha….Itachi!"

Sasuke was trembling in rage as he gazed at his older brother. When he had found out that his brother was in the village- courtesy of a loose lipped jonin- looking for Naruto of all people, his blood had nearly turned to ice.

He knew Naruto was strong, very strong for his age. Strong enough that he had been promoted straight to jonin. But his brother was in another league entirely. No matter how powerful Naruto was now, Itachi would utterly destroy him.

He had immediately set off in pursuit of his teammate.

It was fortunate that the old man at Ichiraku was kind enough to tell him that Naruto had left the village with Jiraiya, the Toad Sage and one of the Legendary Sannin. That popped a question in Sasuke's head as to just what was Naruto doing travelling with one of the most powerful shinobi in the world.

Nevertheless, he had ruthlessly pushed the question at the back of his head. Concern for his teammate had overridden his logic, not to mention the rage smoldering inside him at the piece of news that Itachi came for Naruto and not him.

He had immediately run off to the closest town, counting on the fact that they could not have gotten far if they had only set off two hours earlier. It had taken him only half an hour of running close to full speed to arrive at the nearest town. He had then stopped for a quick breather for five minutes, before resuming his search for Jiraiya and Naruto. After fifteen minutes, he was ready to pull his hair out when suddenly, a loud explosion sounded not far away from where he was. He had turned to see one of the inns' upper floors exploding outwards. It had been fleeting, but he was able to catch the distinct red lightning that Naruto used. He had immediately rushed over there.

He wasn't disappointed at the sight that met his eyes.

Naruto was certainly there, confidently leaning against the wall and facing two people whose backs were facing him. One was a ridiculously tall man, holding a large, bandaged sword that reminded Sasuke of Zabuza's sword. The other one though….

"It has been a long time….Sasuke."

Sasuke's blood boiled at the painfully familiar voice. The same voice that he had loved hearing, and the same voice that had advised him to hate him to gain power to kill him one day. The same voice that slaughtered his parents, his entire clan without an ounce of mercy.

"Uchiha….Itachi!"

His vision went red as rage started to cloud his mind. This was the day he had been waiting for so long. The day he would finally kill Itachi and avenge his clan!

Naruto could see that rage was beginning to cloud Sasuke, as any and all sense of rationality seemed to leave him as soon as he caught sight of Itachi. He frowned- there was no way Sasuke was ready to take on Itachi, a S-class missing nin at his current power. Even Naruto knew that he would only last one or two minutes after which the ex-ANBU captain would finish him off, Flying Thunder God or not.

"Sasuke, control yourself! You cannot beat him!"

Even Naruto knew that it was the wrong thing to say, but frankly, he had nothing else to say that could stop Sasuke at this point. He could only hope Sasuke would regain some of his rationality.

"Stay out of this, Naruto!"

Ok, maybe not.

He watched with wide eyes what happened next. Sasuke screamed in _utter fury- _rage unlike anything Naruto had ever seen before. It was as if Sasuke was screaming his soul out, willing that Itachi burst into flames on the very spot. He watched in befuddlement as Sasuke burst in a sprint towards Itachi, and the latter's complete lack of caring that his brother was running at him with lightning aimed at his heart.

Naruto slowly fell into a loose stance as Itachi just grabbed Sasuke's wrist seemingly without even trying, and redirected Chidori's power towards the side, causing the third explosion in the hallway. Sasuke struggled to get out of Itachi's hold as the power of his jutsu died out.

Naruto weighed his options. He couldn't use a jutsu, for there was a very low chance that he wouldn't hit Sasuke. Oh well, no one ever said everything could be solved with jutsus.

Eight shuriken went sailing across the air, approaching the enemy shinobi with deadly accuracy. Kisame just snorted and used his large sword to simply bat the shuriken away. Itachi glanced at Naruto for the attack, and Sasuke took this chance to once more attack his brother.

"Why you-"

"You're annoying."

The statement was said so dismissively that Naruto felt that Itachi was simply dealing with an annoying housefly, not a person hellbent on killing him. Also, following the statement, was the clean, snapping sound of Sasuke's wrist breaking. Naruto sighed in annoyance as Sasuke screamed in pain and bent over, clutching his broken wrist. This really might set back all the progress he had made with the lord of emo.

Kisame suddenly ran forward, intending to land another strike on Naruto. Naruto brought his kunai up, ready to dodge or block. Before he could do either of them, smoke burst in front of him as a toad appeared, blocking the sword with a forelimb guard. Naruto did not drop his guard as he spoke to his savior.

"You sure took your sweet time coming here, sensei."

Jiraiya arrived on the scene from the window on Naruto's end of the corridor, one leg propped up on the sill while the other was flat on the ground, carrying the body of an unconscious woman. The same woman that Naruto had seen earlier. He muttered in annoyance, "You couldn't have left her in the room or something?"

Jiraiya clearly heard this, but ignored it as he set the girl down and walked up to stand beside Naruto. "Don't be like that, Naruto. My timing was perfect!" Turning to the two missing nin, he pointed his finger at them. "Nice try, but a distraction like that could never work on me!"

"It did though, didn't it?" Naruto whispered to the older man, only to receive a harsh nudge to his ribs. He wisely backed off, opting to let Jiraiya handle this. However, he was surprised when Jiraiya was about to engage the two, Sasuke got up and snarled.

"_Itachi is mine!"_

He shot forward to try and catch his brother off guard. Of course, like the time before that, his ass was handed right back to him. Naruto watched with an impassive face as Sasuke was abused like nobody's business, with Itachi not holding back on him at all. Kisame saw this and grinned. "You don't seem to be too concerned about your teammate, Naruto-san."

Naruto had to bite back the instinctual response of that it was Sasuke's own stupidity that he was being beaten like that. Did he really think he was as strong as a Sannin, who were among the only few people in the world who could match Itachi? Instead, he replied, "Oh, I'm concerned all right. It's just that I don't wear my heart on my sleeve like that impulsive moron."

Sasuke grunted in pain as Itachi ruthlessly punished him. He could feel that his ribs were at least cracked, if not broken. His stomach felt like it was being crushed with each strike to it, and he was starting to see three Itachi's. He couldn't even cry out in pain as Itachi held him up against the wall by his throat.

'_What is this difference? The gap between us is as large as ever. What the hell have I been doing all this while?!'_

"Foolish little brother," Itachi's voice might have been a monotone and uncaring, but there was no mistaking that he scorned Sasuke in the moment. "You still don't have enough hate. You are pathetically weak. Perhaps you need something to refresh your purpose in life."

Naruto watched with a considerable amount of concern as Sasuke suddenly started screaming like there was no tomorrow. Kisame only chuckled without any sort of mercy. "As cruel as always. It seems he used Tsukuyomi on his little brother."

Naruto was just about to act when suddenly, Jiraiya raced through a series of hand signs beside him, slamming his hands onto the ground. Naruto watched in wonder as the entire hallway transformed, no, got _covered_ in some sort of a fleshy substance. He watched as the flesh wrapped over Kisame's feet, causing the giant man to curse.

Jiraiya smirked. "Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi shibari. You two will made good food for the giant, fire-breathing rock frog." As he said it, fleshy tendrils erupted from the flesh and moved towards the cloaked nin to ensnare them. Naruto whistled in appreciation at the offensive and defensive power of the technique. It was not only capable of attacking whatever was inside it, but protecting as well, evident from the way Sasuke got swallowed behind a wall of flesh.

Neither of them saw Itachi close his eyes, but both of them felt the explosion that rocked the hallway.

'_The fourth one today,' _Naruto absently noted as he ran around the corner with Jiraiya, eyes going wide in surprise. Jiraiya cursed in shock- somehow, they were able to burn a hole through the organ of a frog that breathes fire, he realized.

"Fascinating," Naruto muttered as he observed the black flames, keeping a safe distance. He had never seen black flames before in his life. As far as he knew, white flames were the hottest, followed by the blue one and the yellow flame. Another interesting thing he observed was that unlike regular fire, this one kept on burning without showing any sign of getting extinguished.

He suddenly remembered that he had teammate who was attacked by a S-rank missing nin. He turned and headed to the spot where Sasuke was buried in the guts, leaving Jiraiya to seal the flames in a scroll.

After sealing the black fire, he cancelled the frog mouth jutsu with a heaving sigh. He returned to where Naruto was sitting before the Uchiha, seemingly examining him. The aforementioned Uchiha was pale, giving an absent look to the wall in front of him. It was as if he was asleep and conscious at the same time.

"Wow, he really didn't hold back on you at all, it seems," Naruto muttered in slight concern as his hands lightly brushed over Sasuke's chest area. The flinch told him all he needed to know. He lifted Sasuke's shirt, observing the impressive bruises forming on the boy's stomach and ribs. If what he heard was correct…

"Take small breaths. You don't want to aggravate your possibly broken ribs," Naruto advised him as he closely observed the pupils in Sasuke's eyes. With a sigh, he stood up.

"Ok, this is how it-" He was suddenly cut off when a kunai blazed past him, lodging itself into the wall. He watched in amusement as Jiraiya's face met a blue ninja sandal, the following body screaming out, "DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Jiraiya flew with the kick, crashing into the opposite wall all the way down the hallway. Naruto shook his head with a resigned look. _Wasn't he the one who preached how a shinobi should always mind his surroundings?_

"Dammit Gai, what's wrong with you?!" Jiraiya growled out, rubbing his face to try and take away the sting. Gai wilted a little, bowing apologetically to Jiraiya.

"My apologies, Jiraiya-sama!" Gai shouted. Naruto reflected absently that all the man ever did was shouted. "I had come to retrieve Sasuke-kun, but it seems I mistook you for an enemy ninja." Here he looked sheepish, rubbing the back of his head and sweating slightly under Jiraiya's glare.

"Whatever. You came here to take the Uchiha right? Get the kid and go already, he needs to get that wrist looked at." Jiraiya said with a wave of his hand.

"Not just the wrist," Naruto said as he stood up. "He needs immediate medical attention for his cracked, possibly broken ribs, bruised stomach with possible internal bleeding, psychological damage and first degree concussion, in addition to the broken wrist," the last part was said while glaring at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya looked incredulously at Naruto along with Gai. "H-How can you possibly know about all of that?"

Naruto sighed and gave a look of boredom, "It's really not that hard. If you paid close attention to the beating he was getting, you would see it too. The broken wrist is obvious, the heavy bruises around his stomach area usually account for internal bleeding, but you never can be sure until proper examination. The cracked ribs are also obvious, I heard it. Don't know about them being broken though. Psychological damage is from the eye technique that Itachi seemingly used on Sasuke, for he suddenly started screaming, followed by transition into a semi-conscious state. The concussion is also obvious as well, for if you take a look at his pupils, one pupil is dilated a bit more than the other."

Jiraiya and Gai gaped at the thorough diagnosis. While not on a level of medic nin, Naruto's diagnosis was quite logical, now that Jiraiya thought about it. The way that Naruto said everything was obvious told a lot about the way Naruto was used to looking at life. Logical conclusion derived purely from observation- the kid was pretty damn good. He would make a pretty good spymaster, of not for his dream of being Hokage.

"…I think I should see to it that Sasuke-kun receives medical attention as soon as possible," Gai said as he tenderly picked Sasuke up. Moments like these- geniuses spouting off something- made him feel a bit awkward and inadequate. He then raced off, shouting off "Springtime" and "Youth". Naruto and Jiraiya sweat dropped at the man's excessive behaviors, before shrugging it off. Every ninja had their quirks; Gai was just a bit more unique than the others.

"So…..you know why those guys were after me?"

"Not you…..more like what's inside you," Jiraiya answered.

Naruto put a hand on his stomach, where Kurama's seal was. "Why?"

"At this point, I don't know. All that matters is, anyone who wants the power of bijuu that isn't a jinchuriki isn't up to any good," Jiraiya explained, sighing heavily.

'_Looks like we'll have to be careful around those guys, don't we Kurama?'_

'**Indeed. We can never be too careful, even if your seal is one of the strongest in existence,' **Kurama replied.

Naruto patted his stomach, _'I doubt anyone has the key to open this seal.'_

Turning to Jiraiya, he said, "We should leave, don't you think?"

A nod, and they both gathered their belongings, after which Jiraiya shunshined them right outside the town. They resumed their walking in silence, each thinking about what happened back there. Jiraiya tried to think about what the Akatsuki would need all the bijuu for, while Naruto thought about a possible addition to his Hiraishin. Namely, how he could summon anything that was marked by him.

"So, what does your teammate look like?"

The question snapped Jiraiya out of his thoughts as he looked over to the blonde beside him. Seeing his questioning look, Naruto elaborated, "If she's your teammate, she obviously must be pretty old, right?"

Jiraiya snorted in agreement. "Well, Tsunade's pretty vain, you see. She's addicted to gambling, but her luck is so bad that she is known as the legendary sucker. On top of that, she has a habit of taking money from moneylenders and never returning it. So she's almost always on the run."

He rummaged in his vest for a picture of what she looked like now while Naruto shook his head in mild disgust. "She sounds like a kleptomaniac and a coward."

Jiraiya paused in his search to give a harsh glare. "Watch it!"

This time, Naruto didn't back down as he glared back. "Why? Is the truth so hard to hear? A kleptomaniac is a person who cannot help but steal for personal use or financial gain. Seeing as she steals money only to gamble it away, she certainly classifies as one. And she's a goddamn coward because she is always running away from her problems, instead of facing them! In the words of her grandfather, the Shodai Hokage, a shinobi is the one who endures! What you have told me, she is a disgrace to the title of shinobi, let alone Hokage!"

His danger sense rang true as he ducked beneath the punch that would have broken his jaw, and caught the left roundhouse to his right temple. He matched the glare of his godfather in ferocity. "Reality is hard to accept, isn't it?"

Naruto could feel the waves of malice coming from Jiraiya. They both were locked in a glaring match until Jiraiya dropped the glare and sighed heavily. He started walking again, with Naruto following behind him shortly. Silence rang for a few minutes, until Naruto broke it.

"I won't apologize for speaking out the truth."

"I wasn't going to ask you to."

The reply made him look at the older man in surprise, and for the first time time, Naruto saw sadness on the usually jovial man's face. "Everything you said is true, in a way. I knew it long before you said it, I just didn't want to say it out loud," he shrugged, "But can you blame me? I am biased for I am her former teammate."

He smirked softly, "Your pragmatism astounds me, Naruto. Then again, given the way you have lived, I should have expected that."

Naruto shrugged, putting his hands in his pocket. "I had no other option but to face whatever was in front of me. There was simply no way I was going to give up on a dream that I knew I could accomplish."

Jiraiya nodded as he finally found the picture. "Here's your answer to your earlier question."

Naruto took the picture and felt his eyes bulge out. "_Holy….Shit. _There's no way she's above fifty and _this_ hot." He gaped at the picture, dragging his eyes back to Jiraiya's knowing smirk.

"This has to be a genjutsu, right?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Permanent one, I have to point out. She is on run, after all."

Naruto handed the picture back, "So, where do you think she is?"

"I don't know."

The response earned him a look of deadpan from his godson. Feeling stupid, he hurriedly explained, "We have to go to the next town to pick up more information. After that, I'll give you the training I promised to you."

Naruto folded his arms, "Can I start the jutsu training at least?"

Jiraiya thought about it. The jutsu did have three steps to be completed and none of them were easy. He supposed it wouldn't be too bad to give Naruto a head start.

"Fine." He then took out the water balloons from his backpack. "We're going to use these."

Naruto gave a wary look to the man, "You're not making fun of me, right? This is a real jutsu?"

Jiraiya bonked him on the head, "Baka! The real jutsu comes after you master the basics! Now watch closely!"

Naruto carefully observed what it Jiraiya was doing, his senses active. But he didn't sense anything, at least not in the beginning. His eyes narrowed as the balloon was poked outwards in several directions at the same time, making it burst in the man's hand. Jiraiya smirked at the thoughtful look on his apprentice's face. No doubt, he was trying to figure out what happened.

"Now you try it." He tossed a water balloon to Naruto, who held it thoughtfully. The next fifteen minutes were very peaceful for Jiraiya as he began thinking on how to convince Tsunade to return to Konoha, willingly, without blackmail. A bit harder than it sounded, but he was confident he would find a way. After all, he had insurance in the name of Uzumaki Naruto, who-

"Got it." The words so nonchalantly spoken brought Jiraiya out of his thoughts. Wide eyed, he turned to see Naruto still holding the balloon, intact. His face quickly gave way to annoyance. "How exactly have you 'got it'?"

Naruto looked up from the balloon to say the annoyed face. "What? I said I got how you popped the balloon. Not that I have popped it already."

Jiraiya folded his arms. "Tell me."

Naruto shrugged, "If you insist. You rotated the chakra in your palm in multiple directions. The high number of rotations of water happening at the same time increased the pressure inside the balloon to the point it becomes too much and it pops."

Jiraiya simply stared at Naruto in disbelief. In only fifteen minutes, this boy had figured out the first step of the jutsu and explained it as if he was answering a question in a class. But the theory by itself isn't enough. "Alright, your theory is correct. But will you be able to apply it, now that you know it?"

Naruto smirked, "Nothing is impossible, ero-sennin. I may haven't told you yet, but I don't have a chakra network. Which means, I have a direct control on my chakra instead of controlling it through chakra coils. Whatever you can do, I can do better."

The water started swirling in multiple directions, just like Jiraiya's, in the balloon until it finally popped after five seconds. Naruto held out a hand to a gaping Jiraiya, "Can I have some more?"

He spent the next hour popping water balloons with the other hand and sometimes, both hands. It was fun, and it kept him entertained. Not to mention, it was good training. After popping the balloon, he focused on how quickly he could pop them. He managed to get the time down to one second, making him grin. He finally looked at Jiraiya.

"What's next?"

Turns out, it was a rubber ball. And, it was definitely harder to pop than the water balloon, considering there was only air inside and the rubber shell was thicker than a balloon. The theory of the first step certainly didn't work for the second step, and Naruto carefully kept his face free of emotions, for he absolutely refused to give the smirking sage the satisfaction of knowing just how frustrated he was. His genius was baffled to a previously, unreached degree.

They passed and stopped in several towns over the course of the next few days. One time, Jiraiya tried to con him for his money so he could visit a brothel.

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto and Jiraiya smiled as they looked over the bustling crowd in the marketplace. "Looks like a festival is going on, doesn't it?"_

"_It's a pretty famous one, if I remember correctly."_

_Naruto stretched and bounced the rubber ball in his hands. He still hadn't popped it, to his immense frustration. "Then would you mind if I look around a bit?"_

_Jiraiya waved his hand, "Go on, kid."_

_Naruto smiled and took out his wallet. He long suspected that the frog wallet was given to him by Jiraiya, but he figured the man would get flustered if he called him out on it. The wallet was full of money, and Jiraiya was quick to spot it._

"_Oh, it looks like you are rich!"_

_Naruto internally smirked. The man had no idea just how rich he was, without counting the inheritance from both of his clans. However, he watched in bewilderment as the wallet suddenly disappeared from his hands. He gave a quizzical look to Jiraiya, who put the wallet in his robes._

"_What the hell, ero-sennin?!"_

"_Don't worry, Naruto. I'll watch over it for you. After all you're just looking around, aren't you? See you at the village gates in the evening, and take care of my stuff while you're at it."_

_Naruto caught the bag and watched curiously as the man strutted away. He smirked as the slung the bag on and took out his real one. "I wonder how long it takes for him to realize there is just paper money in there."_

_**Flashback end**_

Turns out, Jiraiya didn't find out until he had finished his time at the brothel .When it came to pay, it was then he realized that the money he was holding wasn't real money, just paper. He had to be from his own pocket, to his immense regret. Naruto watched in amusement as Jiraiya proceeded to glare at him for the next three days. He never took his wallet again, though. However, it was during his usual bar rounds on which he was finally able to pin Tsunade down.

Turns out, that Tanzaku town is having a big festival. The town was already a tourist place with its hot springs, theatres and not to mention casinos.

So it confused Naruto that they started moving even slower than before. "Shouldn't we hurry up and catch her in Tanzaku before she gets away?"

Jiraiya grinned at Naruto, "If we do that, she would know for sure that we're there for her and she'll bolt. We can't spook her just yet, so we'll get there a couple days after her and make it look like we just happened to run into each other. See?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, but I'm sure I will in sometime."

"Putting Tsunade aside, how's the rubber ball coming? It's been nineteen days."

Naruto released a breath, "I have a question for you instead."

Jiraiya frowned, "Ok, shoot."

" What….just what am I supposed to ultimately achieve?"

Jiraiya chuckled with a grin, "I was wondering when you'd ask that." "Come on, let's go over to that tree over there!" He led Naruto to over a sizeable tree on the side of the road.

"Watch my hand, alright?" He requested, left hand held up. Naruto watched, amazed, as the chakra swirled and thickened, forming a swirling, spiraling sphere. He could feel the slightest sensation of wind coming from the spinning, visible ball of chakra. Jiraiya's hand reared back and then with great force, he thrust it into the tree's trunk. Naruto was disappointed to see that when the jutsu dispelled, there was only a small, but deep gash in the tree trunk.

"That's it?"

Jiraiya, as if he had read his thoughts, smirked and pointed to the tree, "Look behind it."

Naruto moved around to view the back of the tree and whistled at the sight. The back of the tree had completely exploded outwards. It as a wonder the tree was still standing. "Ok, _that _is impressive." He tapped the bark of the tree lightly, and watched with eyebrows raised as the tree completely fell.

He turned to Jiraiya in excitement, "Who made it?"

The wickedly grinning sage said, "Your father, of course."

Naruto smiled softly in pride, still admiring the aftereffects of the jutsu. "Tou-san, huh? I guess I shouldn't be amazed. Tou-san was pretty amazing after all."

"Pretty amazing doesn't even cover it. But it took him almost three years to create this. I wonder how long will it take you to master this?" Jiraiya challenged.

Naruto smirked, "Now that I know what to do now, no time at all." With that, he went at the ball with renewed vigor.

One hour later, he popped the ball. He finally figured out the trick behind the second step.

The second step involved power. He had to increase, concentrate the volume and density of his chakra inside the ball, increase the pressure so much that the ball burst. It took him a fair amount of concentration to do it, but once he had the gist of how he had to do it, he began popping the remaining balls just like water balloons- with the other hand and with both hands together. The result was that his hands started trembling uncontrollably from the overuse of chakra. Naruto had almost panicked had Jiraiya not explained it to him that he probably hadn't used his chakra from his hands before in this way, so it was a process of getting used to it. He had to grow past the pain threshold if he was to perfectly use the rasengan.

The next day, they arrived in Tanzaku town. Jiraiya told him that he would explain the third and the last step of the jutsu once they were in their hotel room. For the present, they were just enjoying the sights, when Naruto suddenly asked an unusual question.

"Ero-sennin, how good are you at gambling?"

Jiraiya blinked at the random query, but answered nonetheless, "I'm not particularly bad at it, if that's what you are asking."

Naruto nodded, "Good. Then-"

He was cut off when people suddenly started running in the opposite direction of where they were facing. He muttered with narrowed eyes as he sensed a high influx of chakra. "What the hell?"

Jiraiya suddenly took off, forcing Naruto to follow him. Naruto followed as well, both heading towards the massive source of chakra, to the castle on top of a hill. Arriving there, they gaped at the level of destruction. Walls were crumbled to dust and debris, holes and gashes in the ground leading the two to believe either someone was murdered or there was a massive battle.

"Looks like our snake friend met up with Tsunade," Jiraiya surmised, looking around the scene.

"Orochimaru?" Naruto muttered, looking around for some sort of clue. It seemed reasonable as he had burnt off his arms. Why he didn't just sprout another body from his mouth instead of looking for Tsunade was beyond Naruto.

"Let's give her some time to cool off. Naruto, the third step to the rasengan is combining the first two. See you around!" And then he was gone in a swirl of leaves. Naruto glared at the spot, before sighing.

"I guess I should have expected that."

XXXXXXX

"Orochimaru-sama, I still don't understand why we came here to talk to Tsunade. You could have simply sprouted a new body to heal them." Kabuto commented as he sat by his master.

Orochimaru smiled with a wicked glint in his eyes as he looked down at his completely burnt hands. It was only because of high tolerance of pain he had built over the years that he wasn't screaming. "There are many things you have yet to learn, Kabuto. I did not shred my skin because Tsunade has a jutsu that I need."

"A jutsu?"

Golden slitted eyes twinkled dangerously, "Yes. One that can heal any injury. One that has the potential to bring back people from the dead."

XXXXXXX

Naruto spent the rest of the day until evening in their hotel room, trying to combine the two steps. He made a startling and a very pleasant discovery that it was not very difficult like the previous step. Here he was now, panting lightly as he gazed with pride at the ball of spinning chakra between his hands. He had done it! He had actually done it! He could feel the power in the rasengan, and it was enough to destroy someone's guts in a matter of seconds.

He released the hold on his chakra, causing the rasengan to dissipate. He leaned back against the tree, feeling a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. It had taken him a total of twenty days to learn his father's most prized jutsu!

"Finally! Now I can begin to master it!" He breathed out. He frowned as he thought of his father. The man was legendary, known for his speed and rasengan. It must take him only an instant to form it, with _one hand. _Right, Naruto needed _ten seconds _and _both hands _to form it. "Man, this is going to take a while.

He trained for another hour, and managed to bring the time down to three seconds. A big improvement, but still done with two hands. He figured that if he learned to instantly form it with two hands, doing it with one hand might become easier. Of course, at one point, the idea of using shadow clones to hasten the process had come to mind, but was immediately discarded. His father had taken three years to create the jutsu and master it all by himself. It would be cheap and insulting his memory if he used an easy way out.

He was about to try again when he heard the voice. "That was very good, Naruto!"

Naruto looked up to see Jiraiya sitting on the windowsill, grinning. He smirked, "Thanks. Took me the whole day to get to where I am."

Jiraiya came in and ruffled his hair. "You managed to master the rasengan in twenty days! This is ridiculous and all kinds of absurd! Even I took seven months to learn it! You really are a genius, kid!"

Naruto frowned and shook his head, "_Learn, _not master, ero-sennin. Master is when I am able to form it with one hand in an instant," he emphasized by snapping his fingers.

Jiraiya stared at him and asked, "You are a perfectionist when it comes to jutsu, aren't you?"

Naruto shrugged and got up, "I have to, to make sure I don't waste chakra while using it." He put on his jacket and zipped it up. While tying his sash around his forehead, he turned to a bewildered Jiraiya.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto paused momentarily, "I think we've given enough time for Tsunade to cool down, haven't we?"

Jiraiya's expression turned into one that told Naruto he had actually forgotten what they came here to do. "Yeah, let's go!"

**AN: That's the end of it. Sorry about the weak reason for Orochimaru, I didn't think up far enough. Here's something to make up for it!**

**Omake**

Naruto and Jiraiya entered the gambling den. According to Jiraiya, this is where they would find the most information concerning Tsunade's whereabouts. They would start early next morning, make the two hour walk to Tanzaku. Jiraiya made his way towards a gambler with Naruto following, holding a rubber ball. Even though he had popped the ball hours earlier, it was fun to play with. At least his hands had something to do.

Jiraiya held up a picture of Tsunade, the same one he had shown to Naruto. "Have you seen this woman?"

The gambler, one with an afro style of hair, looked at the photo closely before making a sound of realization, "I have indeed. She said she was heading 'there' to win back her losses."

Jiraiya made a perplexed face, "What do you mean, 'there'?"

The gambler smirked, "Tell you what, why don't we trade. If you win, I'll tell you where she is for free. If I win, you'll have to pay a 1000 ryo for the info. What do you say?"

Naruto had a bad feeling about this, but he couldn't say the same for Jiraiya. "Alright!" Jiraiya sat down, apparently about to enjoy the little gamble he just walked into. Naruto rolled the rubber ball in his hand thoughtfully. The gambler wasn't suffering any loss by giving them the information. They were the ones looking for Tsunade, not him. On the other hand, they would lose a 1000 ryo if Jiraiya lost. Either way, it was the gambler's victory.

He would have to be vigilant.

The gambler shook the opaque glass with the dice in it and slammed it down, bottoms up. "Choose. Chou, or Han!"

Jiraiya made a thoughtful sound as he gazed at the glass. After a moment of thinking, he smirked and slammed his hand on the floor. "Chou!"

The gambler smirked in return, "If it's Han, it's my victory."

Naruto activated his danger sense, the perception slowing down for him. He peeked at the dice the moment the glass was lifted. And lo, his instincts ran true.

Jiraiya was about to lose a 1000 ryo.

Chakra swirled inside the rubber ball in the span of an instant. Naruto purposely overloaded it, for instead of the normal pop, it exploded with air that was compressed in high amounts. It easily knocked over the gambler in front of them and the other one in the room, who was playing with some other guy.

Jiraiya seemed to not notice it at all, for he was mournfully muttering. "A 1000 ryo…"

Naruto nudged his master, nodding the man to look at the dice. Jiraiya blinked when he saw that the dice had suddenly changed from Han to Chou, which meant he won. The gambler got up and groaned. "What the hell was that?!"

"Oh damn," Naruto mock scowled while gazing at his hand, "Looks like I used too much power again."

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at that. He knew Naruto had perfectly popped the ball over twenty times, so he shouldn't be making any mistakes now. Unless….

He smirked when he realized what had happened. Naruto had deliberately overloaded the ball causing it to explode rather than pop. He saw Naruto giving him a discrete wink. Turning to the gambler, he said with no small amount of smugness, "Looks like I win."

Grumbling, the gambler had no choice but to give them the information. As they were about to leave, Naruto nudged Jiraiya. "Hey, can I try that too?"

Jiraiya blinked, "You want to try gambling?"

Naruto nodded resolutely, "Yeah!"

Jiraiya smirked, "Then go ahead. We can wait for another hour. Let's see how much money you can make or lose."

Naruto grinned happily as he sat down before an empty dealer. "Deal me in!"

Jiraiya's smirk was soon lost when Naruto bet the double amount of what the gambler had demanded from him. He tried to warn him, "Naruto, that's too much!"

He received no reply as Naruto engaged the dealer in a game of high card. And he won.

Five times in a row.

Jiraiya and everyone else in the room were now gaping at Naruto, who was happily counting the 20,000 ryo he just made. With each victory, he increased the bet until the last one, the dealer was literally in tears from losing so much. Naruto put the money in his backpack and got up, bowing respectfully. "Thank you for the game."

Jiraiya was grinning like a fool as he slung his arm around Naruto, "Who knew you had your mother's luck in gambling, Naruto!"

Naruto blinked up at him, "Not my dad's?"

Jiraiya replied, "For all his smarts, your dad sucked at gambling."

"WAIT!"

The two shinobi halted, turning around to see the same gambler who had played with Jiraiya. He was holding up two dices while smirking. "How about a last game before you go?"

Naruto and Jiraiya looked at each other, then looked back, both of them smirking. Naruto challenged, "Haven't you lost enough for one day?"

The gambler kept on smirking, "I intend to win it all back, with interest."

Now both of them could have easily declined and walked away, but Naruto whispered to Jiraiya, "He seems quite confident that he could win. Could it be that he would use faulty dice?"

Jiraiya whispered back, "There's a solution to that as well." Out loud, he said, "Fine! One last game before we go!"

Naruto walked over to the gambler sitting down in front of him. He noticed that the others were also standing around them, watching closely. He mentally cursed- his chances of cheating just went down drastically, with all the attention that was upon them.

"So, shall we begin?"

"Wait!" Both Naruto and the gambler looked over to Jiraiya, who was holding up a pair of dice of his own. "Do you mind using this one instead of yours?"

The gambler scoffed, "If this is your attempt at cheating, then it's beyond pathetic, old man."

Jiraiya was not offended at all, "It's not that, actually. There's a chance that you might be cheating with your dice, but there's also a chance that we might be cheating as well." Naruto had to give credit to the guy; he gave no outward sign to the statement of lying. "So how about we use the dice of a neutral party, huh?"

The gambler asked, "Whose dice is that, old man?"

Jiraiya nodded to the other gambler, "His."

The other gambler's eyes widened as he whipped over to look at his table. His dice wasn't there! The old man must have picked it up, he realized. Looking back, he gulped and nodded at the other gambler.

The gambler lazily turned towards the two, but he was mentally cursing on losing his chance at using his other dice. His dice always assured him of his victory. If he denied now, he might get caught. He had no choice but to agree.

"Fine."

Naruto asked, "What's the bet?"

The gambler smirked, "If you lose, you return all the money that you won from us."

Naruto smirked back, "What happened to interest?"

It looked like his theory was right after all. He was prepared to cheat his way out.

The gambler smoothly returned, "I suppose I can waive that. After all, you guys have been most entertaining."

"And if you lose, you will give me double the amount."

The crowd around them broke into excited whispers at that. Jiraiya had to hand it to Naruto- the kid had balls of steel, that was for sure. The gambler gulped, "Don't you think that's taking it to a bit too far?"

Naruto shrugged and made a motion to get up, "You were the one who wants to play. That's my bet, take it or leave it." The gambler considered this heavily. On one hand, he could go the safe road and leave it, saving the gambling house a potential loss of 40,000 ryo. If this kid won, they _would _go bankrupt _and, _be the laughingstock of the town. If he won, they would be back in normal business.

Ultimately, lure of the risk of gambling won out.

He took the dice from Jiraiya and rolled it in his glass, slamming it on the ground. "Choose! Chou, or Han!"

Naruto did not even look at the glass, staring the gambler right in the eyes. "Han!"

The crowd leaned over each other, almost falling over in the process to see what the result was. Jiraiya and Naruto leaned over in anticipation as well…..

XXXXXXX

"How can you be grinning?"

Naruto grinned as he comfortably laid on the bed. "Because I won?"

Jiraiya snorted, "You singlehandedly put them out of business, brat. How can you even sleep after tonight?"

Naruto closed his eyes, "Like a baby, old man."

"You better not let Tsunade know of your insane luck. She won't let you leave her side when she goes gambling."

Naruto snorted in amusement, "I don't intend to."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 21

**AN: Hey readers, welcome back! I know many are anxious about how I will have Naruto meet Tsunade this chapter, now that he has mastered the rasengan as well. Truthfully speaking, I will be a bit against Tsunade at the beginning [forewarning, as I felt she was let off to easy], but that will be over as soon as I put the will of fire back in her. Enjoy!**

The streets were a as lively as they were in the day, but it was noticeable to Naruto that people were starting to slowly go back to their homes and resting places, for those who were out of town. It was strange how sometimes, Naruto didn't have much to think about rather than the present. But a topic weighed quite heavily on his mind- him becoming the clan head to both of his clans, now that he was a jonin. His political responsibilities had significantly increased, not to mention that he was now the last of both clans. One good thing about this though, was that he would now be allowed to live in his parents' house.

Before he could dwell on it further, a mental call from his tenant snapped his attention. **'Naruto, I need to talk to you.'**

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Kurama was sounding unusually serious this time. _'Right now?'_

'**Yes, right now.'**

Wow, not only was he unusually serious, but a little impatient and irritated as well. But for what reason? As far as he could recall, he had done nothing to aggravate Kurama. He would have asked the bijuu to continue their conversation like it was going now, but something in Kurama's tone told him that this conversation required some face to face talk.

'_Alright, then.' _In a blink, he was pulled into his mindscape, arriving at the valley on the edge of the great lake that represented his massive chakra reserves. Kurama was sitting right in front of him, on his hands and gazing right at him, hot air rushing past him whenever he exhaled. _"What's up, Kurama?"_

"**I am good, if only a little bored. Even with having access to your eyes, events of the world tends to get a bit boring every now and then," **Kurama smirked at the end.

Naruto smirked in return, _"The world has heard your complaint, and it has been dutifully ignored. Now, what's the matter?"_

Kurama's smirk disappeared as the atmosphere turned serious. **"I wanted to talk to you about your fight earlier."**

Naruto raised an eyebrow, _"You mean, with Itachi and Kisame?"_

Kurama nodded. **"That one. Those men are extremely dangerous, Naruto. Even at your level, you would struggle against just one of them."**

Naruto took a deep breath as he considered Kurama's words. He was not wrong exactly; Itachi and Kisame were in a league all of their own. They were part of an organization that was after the bijuu sealed in the jinchuriki, so it went without saying that he would have to face them at some point down the line. _"What's your point?"_

"**My point is that some extra training should be undertaken. More specifically, I personally think that it's time you started to learn how use the greatest resource at your disposal," **Kurama offered.

Naruto didn't need to be a genius to know just what his friend was hinting at. _"You want me to start learning how to use your chakra?"_

"**Yes."**

Naruto had some lingering doubt. _"Do you believe that I'm ready for this, though? After all, your power is no joke at all."_

Kurama grinned, exposing the sharp row of teeth he had. **"You've been ready for using it for quite some time. Don't tell me that you're chickening out?"**

Naruto snorted, _"Your jokes have no sense of humor. So how will we do it?"_

Kurama looked Naruto dead in the eyes, **"I will begin training you in the use of my chakra. I have an inkling that because you have an impressive grasp on your emotions, you will be quick to master the more difficult part of it. But remember this, Naruto, that when the time comes, I want you to be able to fully use my chakra without relying on me as a buffer."**

Naruto looked at Kurama, his face not betraying a single emotion. Such a thing did not faze Kurama at all, so he waited, knowing that his patience would be rewarded. Naruto always thought things as serious as theses quite thoroughly, weighing every pro and con, to him and to others, in the present and in the future.

"_If it means that I can be strong enough to protect those who I care about, I'll do it."_

The resolve was as strong as Kurama was used to. Unbreakable and unshakable, pure ass-kicking resolve. He grinned, **"Glad that you were not so hardheaded about this. But don't think that mastering a tail will be easy, even for you. One tail of mine does not equate to one tail of the Ichibi, you hear? It's a totally different scale."**

Naruto chuckled, _"I never expected something of this scale to be this easy, Kurama. And where would be the fun in life if things were always easy?"_

He got up from his spot beside Kurama, _"I'll see you later, Kurama."_

With that, he exited his mindscape and found himself looking back at the lighted streets of Tanzaku town. He looked around, spotted the board of a shop and concluded that not even a full minute had passed since his talk with Kurama. In fact, he doubted even five seconds had passed. He inwardly grinned; the human mind was a strange place sometimes, an entirely different world where everything went his way.

"Hey, ero-sennin," he nudged the man walking beside him. He had spread out his senses, and had located the large chakra source they were towards. It was slightly larger than that of Jiraiya's, and that was saying something since the sage had massive reserves of chakra. Another source of chakra was right next to it, an average source of chakra.

"Huh?" Jiraiya looked over to his student. "What?"

"I need to use a bathroom. You keep going, I'll join you." With that Naruto turned right and walked towards a restaurant, not even waiting to hear Jiraiya's reply. The toad sage in question had a twitching eyebrow as he watched the blonde leisurely move away.

To admit, bringing Naruto was a part of his plans to convince Tsunade to return to Konoha. Not due to the fact that they were distantly related, but also for another reason. The same reason that made him feel like a dick every time he thought about it. He sighed, and continued on his way. Naruto was a sensory type, and as such, would have no problem in locating where he was. Plus he also had Naruto's Hiraishin marking on his person. Naruto always knew where he was.

With these thoughts he reached the bar in which Tsunade was in. He smiled nostalgically, _'I wonder how drunk she is right now. It has been awhile since she went inside.'_

He was about to enter it when-

"I do hope you don't plan on flirting with her all the time."

He almost jumped, and he _certainly did not _yelp at the sudden voice next to him because he was a goddamn S-rank shinobi! He turned to glare at Naruto, who was not smirking at all, but his eyes held a playful glint in them. The same glint he always saw in Kushina's eyes that always meant that Minato was going to get his ass pranked.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?!"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Naruto smoothly replied as he entered the bar. To be honest, he really wasn't intending to scare the man. But then again, the man should have been accustomed to this from his father. He was sure the man had done this several times as well, unless he was a buzzkill. Jiraiya followed him, muttering something unintelligibly.

His eyes roamed over the entire bar, taking in everything. The couple three tables to their right, the disguised nobleman at the bar, the thief sitting right beside the nobleman, unaware of the disguise and finally, his eyes came to rest upon what, or rather, who they were after.

She wasn't exactly inconspicuous, not with that large chakra signature. With her sat a woman with shoulder length dark hair in a modest blue kimono and ninja sandals, holding onto a little pig with a necklace of pearls around his neck. She seemed to be somewhat concerned at how much sake Tsunade seemed to gulping down.

"TSUNADE!" Jiraiya yelled, as if he was actually shocked on seeing her there.

Tsunade's head jerked up, and Naruto could tell by the blush on her cheeks that she was well on her way to being wasted. "JIRAIYA?!"

Her shock was more genuine.

Naruto could tell that she was truly surprised to see her former teammate over here. Her gaze then shifted onto him, and Naruto saw, if only for a fleeting moment, the shock that appeared in her eyes before being carefully concealed. So she knows who I am, he mused. Jiraiya sauntered over to her and without even asking for her permission, he sat down.

Naruto followed suit and sat down beside Jiraiya, directly facing the dark haired woman. "Order up kid, I bet you're hungry," Jiraiya told him, and with a nod, he picked up the menu to look through it, completely ignoring the nervous gaze of the woman for the moment.

"It has been a long time, hasn't it Tsunade?" Jiraiya asked, friendly and openly. Naruto ordered, and the food was brought quickly. As he ate his salmon, he greeted the other woman.

"Good evening."

"Good evening as well. I am Shizune, you are?" Shizune introduced herself with a soft smile.

Naruto smiled back, "Uzumaki Naruto, and perhaps you should wear that senbon launcher on the underside of your forearm to better conceal it. Anyone with good eyes could spot the small bumps made by the launchers on your sleeve."

Shizune blinked in surprise. "You can see it?"

Naruto shrugged, "I tend to notice things like those pretty easily. It's more of a developed habit."

"Let's not play games here, Jiraiya. What the hell do you want?" Tsunade barked, rather harshly in Naruto's opinion. Just what had Jiraiya done to invoke such rudeness?

In the corner of his eye, he watched as Jiraiya steeled himself ever so slightly. "Alright, let's not play games then…..Tsunade, you are ordered to return to Konoha and become the Godaime Hokage."

Tsunade blinked, just staring at Jiraiya for a moment before shaking her head, as if amused. "I've been seeing a lot of old friends today," she muttered.

Jiraiya enquired, "It was Orochimaru, wasn't it?"

The silence from Tsunade and the slight widening of Shizune's eyes was all the answer that he needed.

"What happened?"

The tone of the question was calm, but Naruto could hear the suspicion in it. Anything that concerned Orochimaru was serious business, and if he was visiting the greatest medic-nin in the world, perhaps Naruto had injured him more than he thought.

Tsunade answered flippantly, "Nothing. We just exchanged a greeting, that's all."

At this point, Naruto snorted, and quite heavily, for Tsunade turned her eyes turned upon him. She spoke with in a slightly angry tone. "Something funny brat?!"

Naruto put down his chopsticks and stared back at her, a mocking smile on her face. "How about telling the truth? Orochimaru hardly seems the kind of person to visit someone to simply exchange a greeting."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at Naruto, sparks of anger slowly growing. But instead of speaking to him, she addressed Jiraiya. "Who is this disrespectful brat you have with you, Jiraiya?"

Before Jiraiya could answer, Naruto did. He didn't know why, but he suddenly had an urge to exchange a war of words with her. It has been so long since he had one. He rested his elbows on the table, "Please avoid asking such pointless questions you already know the answer to, Tsunade-sama."

He kept his tone entirely respectful, but the insinuation was clear as freshwater.

_We both know just who and what I am. _

If she denied, she would be calling herself stupid, for Naruto wasn't hiding his resemblance to his father at all. A short gasp of air caused him to break the staring contest with Tsunade and look over to Shizune, whose eyes were wide with realization and mouth open for a gasp as she stared at him. Smirking, he turned back to the older blonde.

"And for the record, I never insulted you in our conversation. I was simply stating facts. You are the who addressed us with rudeness," he said coolly, ignoring Jiraiya's alarmed expression and minute shake of head that said, 'Don't do it!'

Tsunade glared heavily at him, whispering, "You have some nerve saying that to my face, gaki."

Apparently, she still seemed to have some form of self-restraint, for she turned back to Jiraiya, dismissing him just like that. "Anyway, I'll pass. Only fools become Hokage."

Naruto rose and eyebrow in amusement at her reason whereas Jiraiya pouted, "That's pretty harsh for me, you know. My greatest student became a Hokage, you know?"

"Yeah? And where is he now?" She returned, though not as harshly as before. "All I'm saying is that the track record for the Hokages isn't the greatest, even sensei! The man retired only to come back after the death of his successor, and just barely survived the recent invasion. Even your student! He only wasted his life saving that village from the Kyuubi." She even looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow to emphasize her point.

Mirth and amusement slowly faded from Naruto's eyes as he glared at the woman, replaced by anger and disgust. He could bear people mocking the title of the Hokage; he easily dismissed those type of people who could never understand what that Hokage stood for. He could also bear people who mocked him for having such a dream. He had been hearing such mocks all his life. But never had he, ever, heard anyone mock his father, the Yondaime. Sure, people had their own opinions about others, but to insult a man who sacrificed his own family for the sake of his village?

And she even had the nerve to look at him, all the while insulting his father and surrogate grandfather. Naruto's opinion of her had substantially plummeted. Wasn't she aware that she was not only insulting her own sensei, but her own grandfather and granduncle as well? The two people who laid the foundation for Konoha? This was the woman who was supposed to be the Godaime Hokage?

Talk about having the will of fire. There weren't even embers inside her, let alone flames.

Jiraiya raised his hands in a placating motion to calm her down. He himself had flinched when she had insulted Minato, who was almost like a son to him. But he kept his anger in check, for that wasn't going to help in bringing her back to the village. "Now now, Tsunade, don't be like that. You have been gone for a long time-"

"I want nothing to do with Konoha, and anyone who is affiliated with it. I will never accept the position of the Hokage. Just because sensei stupidly believed that-"

Her rant was interrupted by Naruto, who spoke in a mock surprised tone, "I'm sorry, I think you are mistaken that this is a request. Sandaime Hokage has ordered us to bring you back."

Tsunade mockingly smirked at him, leaning forward. Naruto kept his eyes from floating downwards, where her breasts had been pushed together. "Let's say that I care. What is there that could make me want to come back to Konoha?"

At this point, Jiraiya watched, slightly concerned over how Naruto handled Tsunade. It was suicidal to piss her off, and there was no other person who knew better than him. He knew that sweet words won't convince her in the slightest, but he could lose her forever if he let this go out of hand. Unfortunately, that was exactly what Naruto was doing right now. Naruto was highly pragmatic, almost to the point of being ruthless. He had no difficulty in laying out the pills that were harder to swallow.

"Protection from various moneylenders, a stable home, and blackmail," Naruto rattled off, not even hesitating the slightest at the last option.

Jiraiya's and Shizune's eyes widened, for different reasons. Shizune tried to think of just what did he have to blackmail her master, while Jiraiya knew exactly just what Naruto was talking about. He harshly whispered, "Naruto! What are you doing?!"

To his shock, Naruto gently waved him away, "Don't worry, Jiraiya-sensei. I know exactly what I am doing. I'll show her the reality of her situation."

Tsunade almost hissed at Naruto, "What blackmail?!"

Naruto rested his chin on his hands, "The fact that there is nothing stopping the old man from declaring you a S-rank missing nin, should we fail."

That was a sledgehammer that no one was prepared for. Jiraiya had wide eyes at Naruto's proclamation. Sensei hadn't said anything like that when he briefed him, so he had to be bluffing. But looking at Naruto's face, he realized that Naruto was not kidding at all. He looked entirely serious. Just as he was about to stop him, a hand came up to stop him, silently telling him to stay out of this. Jiraiya was sure that Tsunade would bash Naruto out any moment, but then he looked at her face.

Tsunade had gone pale from shock. She would have never thought that she could be labeled as a S-rank nin. Never considered that possibility, but then again, the brat could be bluffing. Snapping from her shock, she whispered, half angrily and half in denial. "You're bluffing!"

Naruto shrugged, "You have severed all contact with the village, haven't done anything except drink and gamble in ten years, which means no service to the village, abuse of your Sannin travelling rights and have no intention of coming back. Quite a lot of similarities to a missing nin, am I right?"

Tsunade smirked, "The old monkey would never do that to his student."

Naruto looked up in thought, "I'm pretty sure that I can convince him."

All of a sudden, he was yanked forward by Tsunade, whose hand was now fisted in his jacket. She hissed coldly. "You wouldn't!"

Naruto stared at the hand for a moment, and then stared at her. "Please let go of the collar," he said calmly. Perhaps he pushed her too far, he mused. Tsunade harshly shoved him back into his seat, settling back into her own. Naruto straightened out his collar, "Truth is a bitter pill to swallow, isn't it?"

Tsunade's glare could have killed him ten times over if she had the ability to do that. The atmosphere was tense around the table. Jiraiya was sitting on the edge of his seat, ready to protect Naruto the moment Tsunade lifted her fist, while Shizune looked ready to restrain Tsunade.

Naruto posed his question one more time. "So, will you come back for the sake of your village?"

Tsunade made no reply as she glared hatefully at Naruto for forcing her into this position. The brat may have been bluffing, but there was the possibility that he wasn't as well. And he had hit the hammer on the nail. He had compared her to a missing nin and she would admit this to no one, but the similarities were strikingly accurate. If she accepted, then she would be going back to the village that caused her so much pain and loss. But if she didn't, she could be branded a high level missing nin.

Naruto sighed disappointingly, "I see." He then, to the shock of everyone on the table, got up from his seat and brushed himself. "Let's go, sensei."

Jiraiya was still recovering from what what just Naruto said, so he could only blink in response. "W-What?"

Naruto didn't so much as look back. "We are wasting our time here. Our village is better off without her. We certainly don't need some trash who is afraid of facing the difficulties and realities of life as a shinobi, much less the Hokage. We would be the laughingstock of the entire elemental nations."

Naruto knew he really was asking for it. He knew from the moment he started talking to Tsunade that Jiraiya's plan was doomed to fail from the beginning. No sort of sweet talking would ever work on her, so he tried a different way. Jiraiya might not approve using blackmail against his former teammate, who he still cared for deeply, but as long as she comes back to the village in one piece, perfectly fine and healthy, anything goes.

So he came up with a backup plan. He knew that Tsunade was practically royalty, being directly related to the first two hokages, and the student of the third. Jiji would hesitate to put his former student's name in the bingo book as an S-rank missing nin, but he would do it for the sake of the village. After all, the man had the balls to pull off a move such as dissolving the highly annoying civilian council, even in his age. Perhaps he should have given an incentive for Jiraiya to give to Tsunade to convince her to come back, but that's beside the point. He would have to exploit Tsunade's weakness for gambling, and the only way to do that was to bait her.

And it seemed to have worked, for his danger sense rang two seconds before he felt a hand on his shoulder, forcibly turning him around, and a hand once again roughly grabbing his collar. Tsunade's enraged face greeted him, full of gritted teeth and a snarl. Naruto would have almost panicked if not for the initial success of his plan, for Tsunade was releasing quite a large amount of killing intent. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that all the people in the bar had fainted right away. Behind Tsunade, Shizune and Jiraiya had risen to their feet. Shizune was clutching the piglet to her stomach almost painfully, if the piglet's expression was anything to go by. He was surprised it hadn't fainted, though. Jiraiya looked….panicky, for the lack of a better word. Naruto discreetly motioned him to stay. He had this under control. Jiraiya looked doubtful, but nodded hesitantly.

Naruto finally turned his attention to the enraged blonde, and amusingly noted that they were almost the same height. Tsunade lifted her other fist threateningly, "I'm this close to sending you back to your village the express way brat!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, his expression turning stony. His hand came up to grip Tsunade's hand that was roughing up his collar. "Let. Go."

Of course, she didn't seem to hear him. Rather, she asked mockingly, "Or what?"

Now, it was clear that she was underestimating him. His grip tightened as Tsunade's eyes eyes widened a bit, "Or burn."

Tsunade immediately let go of the collar as soon as her hand had started to feel warm. Clearly, the brat could control his chakra very well. A few seconds longer and her wrist would have been burnt. Naruto smoothened his collar once more and asked, "Might I ask just what provoked such an action on your part?"

Tsunade damn near snarled at the audacity of the brat in front of her. "You call me trash and simply expect to get away?! No one is that lucky, brat."

Naruto crossed his arms and made a disbelieving expression. "Let me get this straight. You are going to attack me just because you don't like hearing that you are trash who abandoned their village. Oh," Naruto looked as if he had an epiphany, "Sorry. My bad. You are not trash….you are actually worse than trash."

Tsunade just about had it. She took a step forward but was quickly restrained by Jiraiya, who struggled to keep her from killing his foolish godson. "Young brats like you should learn how to talk to someone who can make paste out of you if provoked!"

Naruto had no problem returning the insult, "Oh, I know how to quite well. A pity that no one taught _you_. And what do you know about young people these days anyway?"

Jiraiya was frantically motioning Naruto to stop. The one thing that ticked Tsunade the most was whenever her age was mentioned in a mocking way. He didn't know why Naruto was doing this, but his student was treading in dangerous waters.

Tsunade finally wretched herself free from her teammate, but did not immediately move forward. She instead asked in a low, intimidating voice, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Naruto stood in his spot, not intimidated at all. "What do you think, baa-chan?"

Tsunade and he were nose to nose again. Tsunade's smoldering rage was matched against the freezing gaze of his own. "You punk, I really ought to teach you a lesson!"

Shizune pleaded with Tsunade, "Tsunade-sama! You don't have to go that far. Let's just go-"

She was silenced when Tsunade harshly glared at her, forcing her to remain silent.

Naruto sighed, as if it pained him to say this. "If you really want to fight, perhaps we should head outside? I would rather avoid collateral damage more than what you have already done," he said, sweeping a hand around the bar to show the unconscious people.

Tsunade glared and said nothing as she almost stomped outside. Shizune hurried behind her master, looking at Naruto as if he were mad. She wouldn't be wrong, as Naruto had no problem in admitting he was crazy. Jiraiya walked over to Naruto, a stern look on her face. "Why are you doing this, Naruto? Why antagonize her so much?"

Naruto took a deep breath, "She can't be Hokage when she is like this, sensei. Not when she is clinging onto the past without any intention of letting it go. A Hokage cannot afford to be weak minded like this. I am trying to break her out of this state of self-pity she has put herself in."

Jiraiya snorted, "Let me tell you then, you are doing a piss poor job of it."

Naruto sarcastically replied, "I wonder why we weren't going by your method. Oh! That's right, it was failing."

The retort was quick. "And yours isn't?"

Naruto put his hand on the door handle, "We'll see." With that, he stepped outside.

Tsunade eyed the brat in front of her with narrowed eyes. While he was maybe a bit good, she doubted he was anywhere near her level. She was a Sannin, while the brat before her was merely a genin, chunin level at best. There was a whole world of difference between them.

"Kid, I'll give you one last chance to apologize for what you said to me."

His reaction surprised her greatly. His expression immediately became frosty, his eyes narrowing into flinty chips of ice that was cold it burnt. The look reminded her of Namikaze Minato, whose enemies ran in the opposite direction on seeing that look. "_Apologize? To you? _Perhaps it should be the other way around, for you knowingly insulted a man who sacrificed his own family for the sake the village he loved, in front of his son no less."

Dead silence filled the alleyway, and Naruto was glad that the street was completely deserted. Tsunade's eyes widened, and a pinch of guilt filled her being, before she shoved it aside. Before she could say anything else, Naruto continued. He was quite fed up of her by now, "You have no _idea _just what the Yondaime gave his life for, and frankly, I don't think you will ever understand. You have no idea how hard the old man works each day to keep the village safe and sound. You have no idea how much he helped each person in it, indiscriminately. Your worst day can't even hold a candle to his and you think you can turn down the position because you have some personal issues? You have no idea what the Hokage stands for, yet your sensei believes you do, and here you are, betraying the trust he placed in you. All you can do is run away like a coward."

Tsunade was trembling with rage at his point. She was tempted to just thrash him to kingdom come, but she needed to show this brat why no one messed with her. She growled out, "Looks like are way too excited to go into a coma, gaki."

She swallowed her anger and listed out the rules, "Physical attacks only. First one floored wins." Jiraiya and Shizune cringed at the implications of the rules while Naruto shrugged. She was about to lose anyway, why not give her a handicap?

Tsunade smirked savagely and lifted her index finger. "One finger. That is all I'll be using."

Naruto nodded and said, "Very well, since you have laid down the rules of the fight, it only seems fair that I lay down the stakes. I win, you come back with us to the village. You win, we leave you alone. I'll even give you my wallet." He held up his wallet, which jingled with coins and sounds of crispy notes. No need to mention he kept the least amount of his money in his wallet.

Tsunade cocked an eyebrow. "Alright, I'll make this even more interesting. If you win, I'll give you this necklace." She pulled at the necklace that was dangling in front of her impressive bust, showing him the crystal that swung on the end.

Naruto raised an eyebrow in return, but nodded. "Alright then. Sensei, please give the signal."

Jiraiya was shocked that Tsunade was willing to wager that necklace to Naruto, but then his shock turned to pity. He knew just what was going to happen, but he felt that perhaps Naruto should learn a bit of humility. He was getting way too overconfident. He sliced the air in front of him. "Hajime!"

He was confused when Naruto just took out a kunai from his thigh holster and ran towards her. A disbelieving expression came over the faces of both Shizune and Jiraiya. Jiraiya was just gaping at the fact that Naruto wasn't even going at chunin level speeds, and charging Tsunade head on. He knew Naruto planned his every fight out from the beginning and was capable of some really impressive improvisation, but honestly speaking, this one looked to be a bit foolish. Either the brat had a really good plan, or he was just acting plain stupid.

Tsunade had a triumphant and smug expression on her face as she watched Naruto apparently sprint towards her with a kunai. He was attacking her head on, seemingly without any strategy. Perhaps the son of the Yondaime failed to inherit the brains of his father. She smirked as he came within striking distance. _'All bark and no bite. That's all he is.'_

Naruto swiped at her with the kunai, but she didn't even need to be sober for this even. Swaying her head to the side as if dancing to a tune, she easily avoided the kunai, knocking aside the arm like a mere fly and flicked her finger.

Right in the center of his forehead.

His head was thrown back in a jerk, his body soon following as it flew through the air, crashing painfully on the ground and tumbling on. However, instead of the gleam of defeat, shock and confusion swam in her eyes as she fully saw the scene in front of her. Jiraiya and Shizune weren't doing much better either. All had the same thought going over in their heads.

_When did he do that?!_

Naruto glared at his opponent as he took her in for the first time. She looked almost exactly like the picture that Jiraiya showed him, except for the strange diamond mark on her forehead. He concentrated his senses and found out that it was a seal that had a substantially large amount of chakra stored in it. He narrowed his eyes in thought, for he had never read about such a seal that is inked on the forehead.

He looked down at his right foot, which he had used to stop his clone from barreling away any further. "You all must be thinking that just when did I form the shadow clone, aren't you?"

The voice held the smallest hint of smugness as he took in the shock and confusion on Tsunade's face. He dispelled the shadow clone and sauntered forward until he was standing right where his clone was before the fight. Briefly going through the memories, he had to clamp down the urge to whistle. His clone was harsh, but rightly so, because Tsunade was pathetic.

Naruto's question snapped everyone out of their shocks. Jiraiya looked as if he was about to speak first, but Tsunade beat him to it. "When?"

The question held loads of frustration, as if there was nothing else in the world she wanted to do right now than bashing his skull. Naruto smirked, "It should be obvious by now, shouldn't it?"

When no one responded for a few moments, Naruto sighed and explained. "The clone was there with all of you from the beginning. I was never there in the bar at all."

Jiraiya's mind raced and realization struck him. "You switched when you went to the bathroom?"

Naruto nodded, smirking. "You have been talking to a clone all this time. And after going through his memories, I think it might have been the smart thing to do," he said, looking towards Tsunade with a raised eyebrow.

Surprisingly, she did not get angry at all. In fact, she was smirking. "Looks like you lose the bet, brat."

Naruto raised an eyebrow and folded his arms, "No, I really don't see how I lost it."

Tsunade felt anger stirring once again at the dismissive attitude but she reigned it in. After all, victory was hers. "The rules were physical attacks only. Using a shadow clone violates that rule, since it's _obviously, _a ninjutsu." She placed special emphasis on the word 'obvious' to mock him for his apparent stupidity. It was then that it struck her that Naruto could use the high level kinjutsu of Kage Bunshin without any fear of exhaustion, but then again, he was an Uzumaki and the Nine-tails jinchuriki.

Naruto sighed almost disappointingly. He hated talking to simpletons, but then again, it's a curse that all geniuses have to bear. "Actually, you couldn't be more wrong. You made that bet with my shadow clone, so the rules actually applied to him and not me, because I was a separate entity from him at the time. He didn't use any ninjutsu, so he didn't violate any of the rules."

Tsunade roared in anger. "THAT'S BULLSHIT!"

Naruto waved his finger at her like she was a child, "My dear old lady," he easily ignored the spike of killer intent, "That's logical reasoning. It's the same as having a proxy to fight for you. Or in this case, more like a single aspect of my personality within a physical body his own fighting on behalf of….well, me. And since it no longer exists and has returned to being a part of me, I can claim the victory on behalf of him, who is essentially myself. In simple words, I win."

Tsunade had an eyebrow twitching, complete with her jaw gaping in disbelief at the reasoning. Jiraiya was desperately trying to hold in his snickering with his fist in his mouth, lest Tsunade pounded him into oblivion. It was clear that Naruto had exploited a loophole. Tsunade never said a clone couldn't fight on behalf of the original without using any jutsu. Shizune was nervously looking at all three of them. After a full minute of gaping, Tsunade blurted out one word. "What?"

Naruto felt like banging his head against a wall. God, was this woman who the old man believed could become Hokage? They were really doomed, for the seat of Hokage demanded the knowledge of skillful, verbal bullshitting and what he said was a piece of cake compared to the politics of the seat. He felt his IQ really might have dropped a few points from being exposed to her stupidity. He really disliked the people who had enormous strength but no brains to back it up.

"Think of it this way: Is there any difference in me giving an exam or having a clone of mine do it in place of me?" He asked calmly, suppressing his irritation.

He saw that he had finally gotten through her, because she glared at him with all the amount of anger and hate she could muster. Before she could open her mouth to undoubtedly shout at him again, he spoke again. "You on the other hand, used a jutsu first. Don't take me for an idiot, I know you pack all your strikes with chakra. If you flicked me on muscle power alone, I doubt I would even have felt it."

Tsunade grit her teeth. She was starting to hate the brat more and more. She snapped her gaze to her former teammate, who immediately shut up. He seemed to have picked a rather smart student like last time. Only this time, he had no respect at all.

"Fine! Best two out of three! And this time anything goes!"

She was expecting some sort of negative reaction. A direct confrontation with a Sannin would throw anyone off their game. But all she got was a disappointed shake of head, as if he had predicted this would happen. Nonetheless, she settled into a stance, ready to pummel the kid for real this time. If she knew what he was thinking, she wouldn't have waited for Jiraiya to give the signal.

Naruto took out a single kunai as he spread his legs in a rather loose stance. _'She has a pathetically fragile ego, if she needs to beat a kid less than half her age to make herself feel better. '_

Jiraiya was closely watching Naruto. He was sure of one thing- Naruto definitely had a plan to beat Tsunade this time. And judging from the confident look in his eyes, it was as if there was no way he would be losing. He sliced the air again with his hand. "Haji-"

He stopped right there, as dead silence filled the alley once again. Jiraiya actually smirked when he realized just what Naruto had done, and mentally applauded him. Shizune simply gaped in incredulousness at what had happened.

Naruto had won. In less than a second.

The fight was over before it even started.

Tsunade froze in shock as she felt the cold steel of a kunai resting on her jugular vein. She slowly turned around to see cold, azure eyes staring into her own. The same eyes that reminded her of the boy's father, who was feared across the world. They were the eyes of someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill, even for a second.

"H-How?"

She hadn't even seen the boy move. There was no movement at all, not even a blur. One second he was standing ten meters away from her, the other he had a kunai resting on her neck. The only thing she had been able to notice was a tiny, blue flash. In her shock, she didn't even think further upon that.

Naruto retracted his kunai back and put it in his holster as if he hadn't just gotten the drop on a Sannin. Maybe because he already had done it before. He smiled condescendingly, "Doesn't matter, does it? You lost, _again."_

Tsunade just stared at Naruto as he smiled almost cheeringly, putting his hands in his pocket. "Now, as per the stakes, you will come back to the village."

Tsunade still hadn't been able to figure out just how had Naruto won. She watched as he walked with a spring in his steps back to Jiraiya. Naruto had won it fair and square, but there was one more thing that bugged her about him.

Naruto smiled as he reached Jiraiya, who was standing there, smirking. "Mission accomplished."

Jiraiya shook his head, "I don't believe you just did what you did. You put the formula on her when you gripped her wrist, didn't you?"

Naruto shrugged, "Technically, it was my clone, but yes."

Jiraiya observed Naruto closely. "You still don't seem to think she is fit to be the Hokage." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Naruto wholeheartedly agreed with it. "Yes."

Jiraiya sighed, "You don't know her story, kid. She has lost her close family in the last great war. You don't understand her position."

The argument was the weakest one, and Naruto had no problem in crushing it instantly. "Kakashi lost his father, his sensei and his entire team in the last war, yet he is still in service of Konoha. Sasuke lost his entire clan in one night and yet, he still works for the village. Sandaime lost his own wife, yet I don't see him giving up anytime soon. I lost my parents less than an hour after my birth. What's your point?"

Naruto turned to Tsunade, who was no longer looking at him in rage. Instead, she was gazing him with something akin to….understanding? Pity? Whatever it was, Naruto wasn't it the mood for it.

Jiraiya realized that Naruto was right again. But he shook his head, "Pragmatism is good, kid, but sometimes you are downright heartless."

For the first time in a long time, Jiraiya saw rage flash in Naruto's eyes when he turned back to him. Pure, unadulterated rage. "I am not heartless!"

He turned back to Tsunade, and she took a step back at the anger burning in his freezing, cold blue eyes. "I am not! You don't think I feel pity? I did feel it for you, for a short amount of time anyways. You think you're the only one in this world who has dead people? News flash, you're not! Everybody's got dead people, but that's no excuse to throw a lifelong pity-party! A Hokage should be strong, a person who is willing to put the village first, even before themselves! Your sensei believes you can do it, and you have neither the right nor a reason to betray that trust!"

Tsunade's expression went blank. "Why are you so passionate about the title of the Hokage?"

Naruto smirked, letting go of some of his anger. "Because I will be the heir to the name of Hokage. It's my dream!"

Tsunade felt her eyes widen at those words. She could have sworn that she saw the visage of Dan and Nawaki behind him. Those words were spoken with an absolute amount of determination….no, not just that. He was absolutely _certain _he would become Hokage. There was not an ounce of doubt in his voice.

And strangely, it did not hurt after hearing those words after a long time. In fact, it felt rather refreshing.

Naruto was quite adept at reading people. The slight widening of eyes indicated that she had a previous encounter with the same words in the past. Combining that with her hatred for the position of the Hokage and her past, it was logical that someone close to her had the same dream. It meant he was getting through to her. He just needed one last push to make her think in his favor.

"How about another bet?"

The words snapped her out of her memories as she quizzically looked at Naruto. Before she knew, the words fell out of her mouth. "What's your wager?"

Naruto smiled. "Watch." His right palm faced upwards in a half clawed position, while his left hovered in the same position over his right palm. Chakra swirled for a few seconds until…

"Jiraiya, you taught him that?!" She squawked. Though shocked, inwardly, she was thoroughly impressed. It was undeniably the rasengan. Props to the kid for getting it perfect.

Naruto let the rasengan dissipate. "As you can see, it takes me almost five seconds to form a perfect rasengan. I'll bet you that by the end of one week, I can create it with one hand, in an instant." He put pressure on the instant with a snap of his fingers.

'_Aw brat, and I was just starting to like you…but I know it's a bet that I can't lose,' _Tsunade thought to herself. While creating the rasengan even with both hands was impressive, it was a whole another thing to transfer the entire load to one hand. The load that you are distributing with two hands. Not to mention, circulating a load such as that in an instant was simply not possible. Even Jiraiya couldn't do that.

"If I win- you will come back and become the Hokage. If you win, we promise to not bother you, ever again."

It seemed fair enough. But she wanted to test his resolve. Just how far was he willing to go to bring her back. "Not just that, but if you lose, you will quit being a ninja."

Jiraiya and Shizune looked at her in disbelief, but she wasn't rattled at all. She serenely gazed back at Naruto, who now had a frown on his face. "These are my terms. Take it or leave it."

Naruto said nothing for a while, just gazing back at her. The terms were harsh, but he was a shinobi. A shinobi is the one who endures. The stakes had just gone up, and he could not afford to lose here.

"….See you in a week." With that, he abruptly turned and walked away, with Jiraiya following him after giving a two-fingered salute. Shizune rushed to her master.

"Tsunade-sama! That was very cruel of you!"

Tsunade waved her reprimand away, but said nothing. She looked forward to collecting her winnings at the end of the week. But there was still one thing that bothered her.

Naruto didn't look worried at all.

XXXXXXX

Naruto walked leisurely alongside Jiraiya, who shook his head and chuckled. "I can't believe you suckered her into a sucker bet. You downplayed yourself deliberately, didn't you? You could very well master it like you said in three days at most!"

Naruto smirked minutely, "It's better if my opponents underestimate me. It only increases my chances of winning."

Jiraiya frowned, "Impressive as that may be, that was really quite underhanded of you. Winning by fair means does wonders to your conscience rather than the unfair ones."

Naruto gave the look to Jiraiya, who suddenly felt as if he had spoken something extremely foolish. He spoke slowly, as if speaking to a child, making the older man feel even more stupid. "We are shinobi, who live in a world of deceit. Since when did we start playing fair?"

Naruto shook his head as Jiraiya laughed sheepishly. As they reached their room, Naruto closed the doors and remembered that he had to talk to Jiraiya about Kyuubi's training. He quickly made a few hand signs and slapped his palm on the wall. A complex array of seals spread out over the walls of the room. A privacy barrier, developed by the Uzumaki. One that Jiraiya happened to recognize as he turned to Naruto with serious eyes containing a hint of suspicion. "What's the matter?"

Naruto dropped his hand from the wall as he sat down in front of Jiraiya. He looked him in the eyes and said with complete seriousness, "I need to talk to you about something important. Since it's highly classified, it's better to take precautions to ensure nobody eavesdrops on us."

Jiraiya nodded and folded his arms, "Fair enough. Now what is this about?"

"Kurama wants to train me in the use of his chakra. More specifically, he'll be training me to master each tail."

Jiraiya's eyebrows rose in surprise. Of all the news he expected to hear, this was the last on his list. But he shouldn't be surprised, considering his godson's friendship with the Kyuubi. They seemed to be on quite good terms. Making Naruto the sole holder of the fox contract was proof of that. He echoed for clarification. "He'll train you to master each tail?"

Naruto nodded, and that got Jiraiya thinking. On one hand, this was some really good progress. Minato intended for Naruto to master the power of Kyuubi eventually, so it's better if he started training for it now. On the other hand, every time Naruto uses Kyuubi's chakra, the seal would grow weaker until such a time that Kyuubi entirely becomes a part of Naruto….or worse, decides to escape. But that was a long time, so the pros outweighed the cons. And he believed that Naruto truly was friends with Kurama.

"Alright, that is good news." He raised an eyebrow when he saw Naruto smirking. "What?"

Naruto leant forward as if sharing a secret, "You said that I wasn't fair in my bet with Tsunade, right? Well, she may not know this, but this pretty much evens it out in terms of training, right?"

Jiraiya chuckled, "You're not exactly wrong, but good one, kid."

After that, they turned in for the night. The next morning marked the start of Naruto's training with Kurama's chakra. Of course, Naruto wasn't an idiot to do it all by himself. He found an empty ground and after ensuring that no one would be alerted of his usage of Kurama's chakra, since it would undoubtedly cause panic, with seals, he set to work.

He created forty shadow clones. "Alright, I want each one of you to work on mastering the Rasengan with one hand. And you will do it the efficient way. Every time one of you has a theory that has a plausible chance of working to reach our goal, you will test it out and then dispel so that the others can try it as well. I know that it won't be achieved in just one day, but I want to be able to form the rasengan with one hand by the end of today. Understand?"

The shadow clones shouted in affirmative and spread out over the field to begin the training. Naruto had given a bit of thought to the process of how he set to mastering the jutsu. Even though he had felt that using the easy way out would be just insulting his father's memory, he didn't feel that much strongly this time. Of course, this time, he was training in two different things at the same time. Shadow clones were the best way to do it as well. Speaking of…

He formed ten more clones and told them, "Go to Jiraiya and tell him that you want to learn the Kanashibari no jutsu. If he tries to object, tell him that I have already got forty of me working on mastering the rasengan while I am personally training for Kurama's chakra."

The ten clones nodded and vanished at once in a blue flash. After his organization of his clones was over, he then sat down in a meditative position. A second later, he appeared in his mindscape, right beside Kurama. _"So, how are we doing this?"_

Kurama at first said nothing, opting to just stare out at the vast body of water that represented Naruto's chakra reserves. **"Naruto, the first thing that we are going to do is change your mindscape a bit."**

Naruto was a bit surprised at what Kurama said. _"Any particular reason?"_

Kurama looked down at him and smirked. **"Yes. I am surprised that you haven't quite noticed. A very strange thing."**

Naruto racked his brains and gazed out, spreading his senses and taking stock of all that was happening in his mindscape, searching for any anomaly. After what seemed like a few minutes, he frowned. _"I don't see it. Whatever you are talking about is not quite here in my opinion."_

"…**I'm talking about the representation of me. Or more specifically speaking, my chakra," **Kurama pointed out.

Naruto's eyes widened as he heard the statement. Kurama was right, there was nothing in his mindscape that represented his chakra reserves. He was puzzled. _"How is this possible?"_

The answer to his own question came to him a second later. Based on his study of the Eight Trigrams sealing style, Kurama's chakra will flow into him bit by bit, merging with him and becoming a part of his reserves. The mindscape was his, and therefore, it only represented him, not Kurama. It was only when Kurama becomes a part of him that Kurama's aspects would be fully represented as well. Until then, Kurama would only have a small amount of control.

"**That's right, but only partially. Remember the time when you granted me a little control by tearing a little portion of the seal? I only used part of that control to get access to your senses. I reserved the rest of it until a time such as this, where it would be easier to show you how to measure the quantity of my chakra," **Kurama explained and motioned Naruto to watch.

Kurama closed his eyes as he concentrated and exercised the bit of control that he had in Naruto's mindscape. He had been thinking for a long time on how to best explain to Naruto. A second later, a humongous reservoir, inverted of all things and facing the sky, appeared on far left of the large sea that was Naruto's chakra. Naruto looked confused as Kurama opened his eyes and exhaled. _"What did you do?"_

Kurama explained as he settled down on his hind legs. **"You haven't actually seen what happens when you use your chakra, right?" **Without waiting for Naruto to shake his head in negative, he continued. **"You chakra actually starts to disappear into the sky up above, a sign that indicates that you are depleting your reserves. Since they are your own reserves and you have been using them for a long time, you know exactly how much to use for everything you do."**

He then grabbed a startled Naruto and teleported right to the strange reservoir. Naruto gave a slightly suspicious and confused look to Kurama, who just nodded for him to observe. Naruto complied and almost fell right off the ledge that they were standing on. Compared to Naruto's own reserves, Kurama's reserves were downright gargantuan. The vast, orange ocean that was Kurama's chakra was almost never ending. Almost as if it were not a singular ocean, but two or three of them combined. As expected of the mightiest of the tailed beasts. Interestingly, even though the reservoir was inverted, none of the chakra was spilling at all. It was perfectly, reflected their images like a mirror would.

"**As you can see, this is the amount of chakra that I possess," **Kurama explained with pride and smugness. **"The main problem in using my chakra would be knowing the quantity. You can't possibly determine how much of this," **he gestured to the vast water body, **"is one tail of my chakra. Which is why is created it in the form of a reservoir with nine gates."**

Naruto quickly grasped what Kurama was trying to explain. _"The gates are to control the flow of your chakra. Each gate will open to allow the flow of exactly one tail of chakra."_

Kurama grinned in pride and nodded in approval. It was nice to have a genius for a host. **"Exactly, and I've made it in a way that not all of the chakra will pass through a gate. This is how you will be controlling the flow of my chakra into your body. But this is my limit, Naruto."**

Naruto raised an eyebrow. _"Your limit?"_

Kurama pointed to his collar. **"This seal controls how much I can forcefully send into your system. As I said earlier, you'll have to learn to control my chakra without me acting as a buffer. I'm sure you know not to open the first one very suddenly. Open it a little, so that my chakra flows into you at a steady and slow rate, allowing you to adjust to it."**

Naruto nodded in agreement of Kurama's suggestion. Something like this was best taken slow. He exited the mindscape, and found himself aware of the sounds of his shadow clones, aware of every sound and feeling. He reached inside once again, and mentally commanded the first gate open open a little. He almost gasped- it was so much alive, so warm and full of energy, almost like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart, and it was just the beginning!

It felt like almost eternity until the first gate reached its limit. Naruto internally assessed himself and found several changes. First was the feral edge, almost like his emotions were trying to get the better of him. However, years of practicing to control his emotions allowed him to retain his rationality and cognitive processes. Second was the physical changes- he looked down at his hands, and grinned as he flexed the wicked looking clawed hands. Third was the chakra.

As he was using Kurama's chakra, he had shelved his own. And Kurama's one tail of chakra easily dwarfed his own, so the excess was escaping, or leaking. It was like a dense, orange flame, which were escaping from his body, covering him in a sort of an aura.

It felt exhilarating.

Kurama's voice sounded in his head. **"Those flames represent the part of my chakra that is leaking from your body. In order to not waste it, you must pull it inside of yourself in order to avoid getting exhausted very quickly, and maximize your output in your attacks."**

Naruto mentally nodded and tried to pull in the chakra. But it wasn't as easy. Kurama's chakra was wild and untamed, as opposed to his own. So it was difficult trying to reign it in, but he managed to do it after a lengthy two minutes, and could immediately feel the difference. He opened his eyes to observe the changes once more.

The flames were no longer leaking from his body, and after he pulled the chakra inside, he felt as though he was a tightly sealed container, with high amounts of energy tightly packed inside and begging to get out. _'Alright, how do you go about mastering this form?'_

Kurama grinned. This would be most entertaining to watch. **"Call two of your clones from the group of forty. Don't make your own! I want you to get used to the full power of this form."**

Naruto nodded and called out to his clones, two of which came running over. **"Now tell them to gather as many pebbles as they can," **came the next instruction.

Naruto relayed the command to his clones, who after five minutes, had a small mountain of pebbles beside them. **"Tell them to throw those pebbles at you. Your task is this: you must catch the pebbles without crushing them to dust."**

Naruto thought Kurama might have been joking at first, but after thinking upon it a bit, he found it logical. In order to get used to a form stronger than your base form, he would have to be able to perform tasks such as these just like he did in his base form. He instructed the clones to start throwing the pebbles, one by one at first. He would advance to rapid succession later.

The first stone that he caught was immediately crushed to dust. Instead of the normal spike of irritation, he barely resisted the urge to snarl. He had forgotten that this form would make him experience heightened emotion. Kurama chuckled, **"You must also master the same grip you have on your emotions in this form that you have without my chakra."**

Naruto sighed, "This will take a while."

Another warning came from Kurama. **"One last thing, you must release this form after half an hour for a total of fifteen minutes. There is a limit as to how long you can remain in it without getting your muscles damaged by my chakra."**

Naruto did not protest against that as well, knowing it to be fully true. Another thing that Naruto found out when he released the form was that utter exhaustion. As soon as he had locked the tail of chakra, he almost toppled over in exhaustion. Of course, Kurama didn't even need to explain that. Since the chakra was like a shot of adrenaline, he was bound to get exhausted after it ran out due to the sudden drop in energy. Of course, after fifteen minutes, once his chakra was flowing once more through his body and he wasn't exhausted anymore, he tried again. There were times that chakra still managed to leak out, but Naruto was able to correct it until packing it inside his body became second nature to form it like a second skin.

This continued until the sun had completely set, and stars had taken over the sky. Naruto was proud to say that he had progressed to a point where the pebbles were no longer being crushed to dust, but instead tiny pieces that were visible to the naked eye. Not only that, but he had grown accustomed to opening the gate for the first tail much faster.

Slow progress, but progress all the same.

On the other hand, his clones had made remarkable progress. He was finally able to form the rasengan with one hand, even though it took him seven seconds. He had no doubt that by the day after tomorrow, he would have won his bet with Tsunade.

XXXXXXX

Jiraiya walked on, into the heart of the town where he happened upon a little bar, and on a stool sat Tsunade. He moved next to her, sitting down and ordering some sake.

"Nice night, isn't it?" Jiraiya prompted some conversation from the women who seemed content to just ignore him.

"Hm." Tsunade mumbled. "Say, Jiraiya . . . what really made you go and seek out Naruto? I thought you were content behind the scenes with him?"

Jiraiya drank from a cup, "Not exactly. You see, I met him when he was young, for he was trying to master fuinjutsu…." Jiraiya recounted the tale of when he met his godson for the first time. After the tale was finished, Tsunade hummed in realization.

"So you're doing it because he guilt tripped you?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "No…well, partially. I failed with my duty as his godfather before, this was the best chance I would ever get to make it up to him. I wasn't about to just let it go. Minato trusted me with his legacy."

"And your fool of a student just left him without so much as a by your leave." Tsunade grunted.

"No . . . he did say to treat the boy as a hero." Jiraiya defended.

Tsunade dismissively waved a hand and scoffed, "Just empty words!"

"Quite enraged on his behalf aren't you?" Jiraiya teased.

"Well . . . his mother and I were friends, weren't we? Certainly we were blood related. In a distant sense, he's family." Tsunade mumbled out her excuses.

"Family, right. Certainly looks like family." Jiraiya agreed.

Tsunade glared at Jiraiya. She knew where he was going with that look comment. "Oh yes, I did in fact notice quite the resemblance between him and Nawaki, you manipulative asshole."

"Guilty as charged." Jiraiya allowed. "Blasts from the past all around this week, huh?"

"Hmph, seems you and Orochimaru are just gunning for my weak spots. Bastard actually had his lackey cut open his hand and I froze." Tsunade grumbled.

"Still got that fear, huh? Too bad . . . take it as an omen for whatever Orochimaru has offered you." Jiraiya recommended.

"How do you know he offered me anything?" Tsunade demanded with an affronted expression. Jiraiya couldn't possibly know what was going through her mind now! She knew Orochimaru was a bastard . . . but when he offered to bring back Dan and Nawaki, even she had to stumble a little.

"Hime, whatever it was, it is serious enough for you to give it thought like this. Otherwise you wouldn't be sticking around, right?" Jiraiya guessed. Though Tsunade gave no appearance of it, just returned to nursing her sake, he knew very well.

"It's none of my business, it might be true." Jiraiya went on, "but I just want to make one thing clear. If you betray Konoha, I'll kill you myself." He pinned her with a dark look, intent clear in his eyes, and Tsunade knew he wasn't joking.

Tsunade thought back to the time when Naruto had called her trash. She knew exactly where he was coming from. Obviously, they were Kakashi's words, taken from his late comrade, Obito. Those who abandon the rules were trash, but those who abandon their comrades were worse than trash. He wasn't wrong at all. After a minute of thinking, she finalized her decision.

Jiraiya went back to drinking, not noticing that Tsunade had discreetly slipped a drug into his drink.

XXXXXXX

Naruto's prediction was only partly false. It took him a total of four days to form a rasengan with one hand within an instant. Not only that, but he had mastered it so that he could do it with both hands. In addition to that, he had managed to learn and master the Kanashibari no jutsu (Temporary paralysis technique) with the help of Jiraiya and his shadow clones.

Shadow clones were _so awesome!_

Kanashibari was a jutsu that physically immobilized targets, as though they have been tied down by invisible ropes. However, the jutsu was only as powerful as its user. Naruto, with the help of Jiraiya and Kurama, was able to estimate that he was powerful enough to restrain most jonin with it, but he would have trouble restraining someone of Jiraiya's power. Jiraiya seemed to have some strange chakra that was powerful enough to counter his own, which was saying something since his chakra was incredibly dense and filled with a large amount of vitality, as is the norm for most Uzumaki.

Anyways, the usual way to use it is physical contact, but Jiraiya proved himself why he was an undisputed spymaster, for he taught him how to use that jutsu with just eye contact. It was incredibly difficult to mold and project the chakra through just eye contact. But Naruto's chakra control was refined enough that he was able to master it to that degree, though that took him the whole week to do it. Not that he was complaining.

Freezing his enemies with literally nothing more than a glance was _badass._

Right now, he was wolfing down a well-deserved meal of ramen from a stand he had found. While it wasn't as good as Ichiraku's, it was ramen all the same. As he was in the process of polishing off his seventh bowl, he sensed a chakra signature coming, and immediately knew who it was.

"Fancy seeing you here, Shizune-san. How's it going?"

Shizune greeted him with a smile, "I'm fine, Naruto-kun. How about you?"

Naruto put down the empty bowl with a sigh of satisfaction. "I'm eating a well-deserved +3meal after training. You gotta admit, hard work is bitter, but the results of it are just as sweet, if not more!"

Shizune smiled and nodded. "They are. Naruto-kun, I was hoping to talk to you about the bet you made with Tsunade-sama," she requested.

Naruto made a contemplative face and stood up. He put some money on the counter and turned to her, "Let's take a walk."

They roamed in the streets, with Naruto keeping a constant lookout for eavesdroppers. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Please drop your bet with Tsunade-sama," she implored. "If not for her sake, at least for your own life. You see, the necklace that she offered you….it's cursed."

An amused smile lit up on his lips, "Cursed, you say? And pray tell, how exactly is it cursed?"

Shizune informed him in a solemn voice. "Whoever receives the necklace dies the very next day."

Naruto shook his head, "That sounds like a load of crap."

Shizune cried out earnestly, "But it's true! Her own brother and lover both dies after they received the necklace! Please, give up the bet."

Naruto sighed and turned to her, stopping their little walk. "First of all, I can't do that. Giving up has never been my way of doing things. Second, I have already accomplished what I told your master, but seeing we're in quite a busy place right now, the rasengan will have to wait until later."

Shizune wanted to protest more, but seeing the look on Naruto's face, she heaved a big sigh. "Very well, if you are so set on it. Tsunade-sama can't be found right now, so it will be better tomorrow. What will you do now?"

Naruto made a thinking face, "I don't know…." Then his face lit up with a smile as he turned to her, "How about we go for ice-cream? My treat, since I'm feeling really good today."

Shizune giggled, "Are you treating me to a date?"

Naruto smirked as she hooked her arm around his, "It's not a date, for your own sake. Otherwise, I would have to call you a cradle robber."

Shizune made a mock affronted face as they set off to get ice cream.

After a good night's rest, Naruto was up and fully rested. He cleaned up and dressed up as usual, without his vest or hitai-ate, and was about to head to the hot springs for one last time, when Shizune burst into his room, panting and looking very frantic.

"Where is Jiraiya-sama?!" she asked, sounding extremely harried.

Naruto was used to Jiraiya's random disappearances, so he just shrugged. "Beats me. What's the matter, though?"

"Orochimaru offered Tsunade-sama something in return for Tsunade-sama's unique, self-healing jutsu. I fear she's gone to accept the offer. Naruto, we must hurry and stop her!" Shizune explained in a rush as she moved to the window.

'_Unique self-healing jutsu? Is that what the seal on her forehead is all about?' _Naruto wondered as he followed Shizune. His danger sense rang just as she opened the window, and he pulled her back just in time for the kunai to whiz past the spot where she was a second ago.

Shizune yelped as she was pulled back, a hand on her upper back preventing her from falling over on her butt. She looked back to see Naruto's face set in an exasperated expression. However, the confusion that followed soon turned into slight panic as Naruto himself leaned out of the window.

"LOOK WHERE YOU ARE AIMING AT, YOU SENILE, PERVERTED OLD MAN!"

She leaned out of the window herself to see the man she was looking for. Naruto jumped out of the window himself, face frowned in confusion. "Who the hell managed to get a jump on you?"

Jiraiya was panting heavily, and his skin was covered with sweat as he gripped onto the window frame like it was the only thing keeping him upright.

"Damn Tsunade….drugged my drink. The effects will wear off soon, but not soon enough for the fight….Naruto, can I count on you to help me out with this?" Jiraiya ground out, looking at the blonde.

Naruto nodded as he passed a jug of water to the man. Jiraiya gratefully nodded at him and chugged down the whole thing within a minute. He gave a sigh of relief, muttering, "That's better."

However, Naruto still hadn't dropped his guard. He was sensing a highly suppressed chakra signature a few rooftops away. And it seemed to be slightly familiar, with that feeling of snakes coating from it. Without any warning, he threw three shuriken in the air, which looped mid-air to converge on the position of the spy. All three of them spotted a slight movement as the spy fled away quickly.

Shizune asked, "Who was that?!"

Naruto muttered as he walked to his backpack, "Whoever it was, I have a feeling we'll be seeing him soon enough."

He took out his hitai-ate, taking off the sash and wrapping the headband back on his head. He did not have time to take off his jacket and switch it with the vest. Shizune and Jiraiya were ready to go, even if the latter hadn't fully recovered. He gave a nod of approval for shooing away the spy.

"Let's go!" She said as she jumped out of the window. Naruto and Jiraiya easily followed suit. They spotted a faint dust cloud in the distance, and were able to hear the low, thunderous noises of something getting smashed. They all arrived at an open field, with Shizune sighing in relief and Jiraiya grinning- whatever Orochimaru had offered Tsunade, she had refused.

Running a little further, they arrived at the fight. They weren't surprised to see Orochimaru and Tsunade fighting, the former's hands looking as if nothing happened to them, but Naruto's eyes narrowed as he spotted Kabuto.

He called out to the traitor. "Kabuto! You were the one who was spying on us, weren't you?"

"Indeed, Naruto-kun. You must be an accomplished sensor if you managed to sense me, for I was highly suppressing my chakra." Kabuto admitted with a chuckle.

"Enough of this!" Tsunade spat, flying forward to smash a fist into Kabuto's face. Kabuto smirked, and with his chakra scalpel in hand, sliced a large cut across his palm, right in front of Tsunade's face. The woman automatically froze, eyes wide and body trembling minutely.

"Tsunade?" Naruto questioned, and then his eyes went wide when Kabuto landed a vicious hit to her jaw, causing her to topple backwards."

Jiraiya grunted, "Damn it…it's hemophobia. Shizune, you handle Kabuto! Naruto, you will protect Tsunade! I'll take on Orochimaru." He ordered them, striding forward to meet the snake face.

Kabuto sneered, "Pathetic! What kind of a medic-nin is afraid of blood?" He was about to punch her in the face once more, when Shizune intercepted him. "Stay away from her!"

While she engaged Kabuto in a fight, Naruto flash stepped to Tsunade and crouched down to the still, shell shocked Tsunade. "Come on, this really looks pathetic. You are the foremost medic in the world! And just who allowed you to show him your weakness?!" He scolded her, and when he received no response, he rose up and took out two of his special kunai, ready to defend her in case Kabuto slips past Shizune.

On the other end of the field, Jiraiya was having a lot of trouble. His body had still not fully recovered, and Orochimaru was bearing down on him without any signs of slowing down. He sighed in slight relief when Orochimaru backed off from swinging the Kusanagi on him, but almost groaned at what he did next.

Orochimaru cut his thumb, and in the next moment, a large, brown snake appeared. Orochimaru grinned, "Ready to die, Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya grit his teeth. His chakra control was pretty bad enough, and he couldn't risk calling the smaller toads here. He would just have to fight this another way it seems.

Naruto noticed his godfather in trouble, and was about to create a shadow clone to go and help him when the things got worse. Turns out, Kabuto had managed to catch Shizune's ankles with his chakra scalpels, catching her off guard with the headhunter technique. And now he that he was done with her, he was heading for Tsunade, who still hadn't snapped out of her shock.

Naruto mentally cursed and threw the kunai before his feet, flying through hand seals, ending on the tiger, a crimson barrier enveloping him and Tsunade. It was a moderate level barrier that protected the user from low to mid-level physical attacks, so Naruto had no problem holding it. Kabuto's hand, lit with a scalpel, sliced at the barrier. He flinched and jumped back, glaring at Naruto. "What is that?"

Naruto smirked, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

In the corner of his eyes, he watched as Jiraiya buried the snake in an earth-style swamp, and then collapse onto a knee. He mentally cursed- Jiraiya still had yet to recover from the drug. If this kept going on, Jiraiya _will _be killed. Kabuto seemed to notice this as well, and wasted no time in taunting him.

His pleasant voice, slightly jeering, grated on his nerves. "It looks like Jiraiya-sama isn't faring quite well. It won't be long before Orochimaru-sama manages to kill him. What will you do, Naruto-kun? Save your master, or save the woman who doesn't even care what you think of her?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "You don't know what you are talking about. To answer your question," a smirk graced his lips, "I don't see why I can't do both."

Still holding the tiger sign, a shadow clone popped up beside him. He disengaged his right hand from the seal, forming a joint tiger seal with the left hand of the clone, thereby transferring the control of the barrier to the clone. He watched amusingly as Kabuto's face went right from triumphant to annoyed, having figured out his plan. Still, the traitor was gracious enough to praise him. "Your abilities in fuinjutsu are truly astounding, Naruto-kun. But how long do you think your clone can hold this barrier for you?"

Naruto smirked as he picked up his kunai. "Long enough." That was all he said before vanishing in a blue flash. Truth was, he had roughly twenty seconds before the clone dispelled itself, leaving Tsunade vulnerable to attacks. Not that his clone was weak, but if he had to dispose of Kabuto, he needed the element of surprise, along with a bait.

Kabuto cursed and immediately turned to where his master was fighting Jiraiya once again, with the sword of Kusanagi. "OROCHIMARU-SAMA! WATCH OUT!"

Orochimaru was having a blast fighting his old teammate. Jiraiya was slowly recovering, but he knew that at some point in this fight, Orochimaru will pull out the boss summon, and he would be helpless against Manda if he couldn't summon Gamabunta. The drug still wasn't completely out of his system, and he hated that damn sword!

Orochimaru was in mid-swing to cut off Jiraiya's head when he heard Kabuto's warning. At first, he didn't know what Kabuto was warning him about. He was fighting Jiraiya, Kabuto had disposed of Shizune, leaving Tsunade and-

Oh shit.

His epiphany came too late, as Naruto flashed right in front of him, blocking Jiraiya and his swing with a wind laced kunai. He had no time to block as Naruto completed his spin, crashing his left foot right into Orochimaru's left jaw, sending the snake Sannin flying back. He flipped in the air to land on his feet, but Naruto was already moving.

Or rather, his hands were. Naruto spoke nothing as he swiftly cut off the wind chakra, sliced a shallow cut on a surprised Jiraiya's thumb and wiped the blood on his own palm. Five rapid hand signs, and he and Jiraiya were standing on the head of the boss of toads.

Naruto had summoned Gamabunta with Jiraiya's blood.

Before Jiraiya could say anything to his godson, Naruto had flash stepped away. Jiraiya looked over to where Naruto had gone with wide eyes. Orochimaru was snarling in rage- Naruto had robbed him of too many valuable opportunities. His eyes widened as he watched what happened next.

Kabuto smirked as he gazed at the scowling shadow clone protecting Tsunade. He was not the one to stand idly while someone turned the tables against his master. He had created a shadow of himself to finish Shizune off. He was surprised though, when he saw the toad boss suddenly appear, but then again, Naruto was the apprentice of the toad sage. He looked back to see his shadow clone almost upon Shizune, the chakra scalpel heading for her open throat.

Fully expecting for her to get killed, he was shocked when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of her, catching the shadow clone by the wrist and dispelling it with a well-placed hit. At the same time, he heard the pop sound of a shadow clone dispelling behind him. Looking back, the clone was gone, and so was the barrier protecting Tsunade.

Kabuto seized his chance and activated his scalpel, prepared to cut right at her throat. Just as the hand was about to reach its destination, another hand grabbed his by the wrist, stopping it in its tracks.

Kabuto was stunned when Naruto suddenly appeared before him, stopping his attacks. It happened too fast for him to comprehend- he had attacked the moment Naruto had attacked his clone. There was no way he was that fast to stop his attack so accurately! How did he even counter the instant that he appeared?! It made no sense!

Naruto flashed right to Tsunade's mark, his danger sense slowing down his perception to show the scalpel heading towards his side, since the previous target was now blocked by him. But he had no intention of letting that scalpel touch him. His left hand caught the wrist behind, stopping the advance. He saw shock fly across Kabuto's face, but he had no intention of letting his enemy regain his thought process.

With a little bit of force, he cleanly snapped Kabuto's wrist, the sound almost music to his ears.

Kabuto couldn't hold back the scream when Naruto broke the bone cleanly, his wrist bending forwards at an angle it really shouldn't. It was a surprise the bone didn't break out of the skin. He was given no chance to numb the pain with his healing ability, for suddenly, a whirling noise caught his attention.

By breaking Kabuto's wrist, Naruto ensured he wouldn't be able to block his next attack because of the sudden, high influx of pain. A rasengan formed in his right hand in an instant, spinning at high speed, slightly bigger than his hand and with a gleeful roar, he drove the spiraling sphere of chakra right into Kabuto's stomach. "RASENAGN!"

Naruto watched with a smirk as Kabuto flew back from the powerful attack, blood flying from his mouth. He flew back so far and fast that he smashed through a rock, breaking it into pieces and skidding backwards until he was stopped painfully by a second one. He fell forward on his stomach, yelping and coughing, the pain nearly overpowering. Doing an internal diagnosis, his eyes widened in extreme shock- he had broken more than a few bones, along with his torn and near liquified internal organs and muscles. The eyes widened further when he discovered that he couldn't heal as fast as usual! Just how strong was that jutsu?!

Naruto turned around to face Tsunade, who had seemed to finally snap out of her shock. She was still looking at him with fearful eyes, as if she was still looking at fresh blood. "What are you….."

Naruto held up a hand, "Wait a second." He flash stepped to Shizune, who was still unconscious, picked her up and flashed back. Tsunade choked upon seeing her unconscious apprentice. Naruto assured her, "Don't worry, she's just unconscious. I was able to stop Kabuto from killing her."

Tsunade hastily crawled over to Shizune, checking her pulse. It was a little weak, but thankfully it was still there…

"Kabuto managed to catch her ankles with his chakra scalpels. I only know that, not what happened before," Naruto's voice made her look at him, tears falling from her eyes. She looked back to Shizune, her hands glowing green. A tremendous weight seemed to leave her shoulders; Shizune did not require any immediate attention.

She shakily stood up and faced Naruto, who was smirking softly with his hands crossed. "You saw what I did, right? I win."

Tsunade's expression was of a surprise and relief, which turned into a shaky smile. She tightly hugged Naruto, ignoring the surprised grunt from the boy. After a long time, she sobbed like a little girl. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…." She didn't know what she would do without Shizune.

Naruto was surprised, but upon hearing her crying, he wrapped his arms around her. It was a surprise to see her crying, not at Shizune's state, but in relief. "It's ok….." he whispered, tenderly rubbing her back. If not for the situation, he would have had a nosebleed upon feeling those mounds against his chest. He figured that everyone needed an emotional outlet like this sometimes. Ironically, this was the second time he had a girl hugging him while crying because he saved someone who was close to her.

On the other side of the field, Orochimaru was cursing the brat for all his worth. Naruto had proven himself way too good to be left alive, if he was able to dispose of Kabuto in a single hit. "The brat you've taken on is quite good, huh Jiraiya?"

He was currently dodging attempts to either get squashed or sliced by the toad boss. Jiraiya sneered at Orochimaru, "Looks like your apprentice needs only one hit to be taken off the field, _teme."_

Orochimaru weighed his options. He could not let Kabuto be killed at any cost. The guy was too valuable with his medical knowledge, and he was the only one Orochimaru trusted with his secrets the most. But he could also not let Naruto live, for he was too good for his liking, and would no doubt give him trouble in the future, if Akatsuki got a hold of him. He needed to be taken care of right now as well.

'_Looks like I don't have a choice,' _he thought as he bit his thumb, preparing to summon the snake boss, Manda. In a flourish, the snake boss appeared, as sour as ever.

"**Orochimaru! You dare to call me?! You better have my hundred sacrifices ready!"**

Orochimaru chuckled, "Of course, Manda. I just thought you would like some toad meat today."

Manda glared at Gamabunta. **"Disgusting toad!"**

Gamabunta chuckled in mirth. **"I'm sure my wife would love a snakeskin wallet!" **With that, the two summons clashed in battle.

With Jiraiya's summon taken care of, Orochimaru immediately jumped off Manda, running for Tsunade and Naruto. Jiraiya cursed and leaped after him, hoping he could stop him in time. "NARUTO, WATCH OUT!"

Naruto, who was still rubbing Tsunade's back, snapped to attention at Jiraiya's warning. A second later, his danger sense rang loudly, alerting him of Orochimaru's approach. He was about to flash to a marker, but did not expect for Tsunade to disentangle from him, placing herself before him to shield the boy with her own body, and Orochimaru's sword ran right through her chest.

Both Naruto and Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock, and the latter retracted his sword. "It wasn't my intention to hurt you, Tsunade. Just move aside, my aim is the boy."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, his anger at the old woman's stupidity evaporating. It seemed that Orochimaru held two grudges against him now. The first was foiling his plans of Konoha, the second was almost killing Kabuto. His eyes then widened at Tsunade's next words.

"You won't touch him!" She snarled, wincing from the pain in her chest.

"Why do you defend him?" Orochimaru asked curiously.

"Because it's my responsibility from here on out…as the Godaime Hokage of Konoha!" She declared. A second later, she shot forward and punched the snake Sannin sending him flying.

She took a deep breath and formed the tiger seal. "Ninpo: Sozo Saisei!"

To Naruto and Orochimaru's wonder, the diamond on her forehead morphed and extended, forming tattoos around her face. Her wounds closed up and healed at an astounding rate, and she looked fully revitalized when she opened her eyes. Orochimaru was almost salivating as he witnessed the effects of the jutsu he had come for in action, while Naruto was gaping at the medical miracle Tsunade had pulled off.

What followed next was a battle of epic proportions. He witnessed firsthand, the power of three of the most powerful shinobi to come out of Konoha. _'No wonder they are called legendary,' _he mused as he sat back and watched the show. Kabuto still hadn't managed to get up, so no worries there. Shizune regained consciousness somewhere when Tsunade was reintroducing Orochimaru to her fists, so that was also good. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough chakra to heal her ankles on her own.

The battle came to an end when Tsunade drove the Toad boss's tanto straight through the snake boss's mouth, pinning him to the ground. Orochimaru finally decided that he wasn't going to win this battle anytime, so he decided to flee. He looked over to where Kabuto was and winced- his right hand had barely managed to sit up and was only just managing to remain in his position. He body flickered to Kabuto, ready to assist him to flee. Jiraiya and Tsunade appeared before him, their summons disappearing as well, stance battle ready. He glared at them- he had taken way too many hits from Tsunade, and Jiraiya-baka had managed to give him a hard time as well. "Be stubborn if you wish, Tsunade- I have other ways to remain alive."

He then disappeared with Kabuto, gone as if he wasn't even there.

"Tch! I guess we won't be seeing him for a while, "Tsunade muttered, breathing deeply and walking towards Naruto. She was surprised and happy to note that Shizune was now conscious. Jiraiya and Naruto on the other hand, stared at Tsunade. In the fleeting moment that her seal had restored, they had managed to catch a glimpse of what she really looked like. She looked so old and fragile, much more so than Jiraiya. Was that the price of her technique?

She healed Shizune's ankles, allowing her to walk, albeit weakly, due to lightly chakra exhaustion. Jiraiya grinned and slapped Naruto on the back, throwing him a bit forward. "Damn brat, I don't give you enough credit! You took Kabuto out in just one hit! I haven't seen anyone move that fast since your father!"

Surprisingly, Tsunade also joined the conversation with high spirits. "So that _was _Hiraishin, wasn't it?"

Naruto smirked, "Wow, I'm surprised it took you so long to figure out, considering you yourself have a mark on you."

Naruto pointed the mark out to her on the side of her wrist, the place that no one usually sees with their own eyes. Tsunade suddenly looked scary and turned to Naruto, a fist shaking. "And just when were you planning to tell me that?"

Naruto kept smirking, "It slipped my mind….._baa-chan."_

"Don't call me that, brat!"

Naruto laughed cheerfully as he easily avoided the swat of her hand, but Tsunade smiled fondly as she gazed at his face. _'He really is just like them.'_

XXXXXXX

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, getting up and stretching after a good night's sleep. Jiraiya was already awake, sitting by his bed, smirking at him.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!" He teased.

Naruto just raised an eyebrow in deadpan, not seeing the humor at all. He put the covers aside and got up, heading to the bathroom. "When are we leaving, ero-sennin?"

"Today. Shizune is downstairs, checking out. Tsunade is taking care of some last minute things. You freshen up though- we'll most likely leave in an hour," Jiraiya said.

Naruto nodded and took his time to complete his morning duties. Twenty minutes later, he came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist and another rubbing his hair dry. He sighed in relief- the hot shower was great in here. Jiraiya was just packing up his and Naruto's belongings, when the door opened to reveal Tsunade and Shizune.

Naruto raised a brow when Shizune suddenly went red in the face and faced away from him. He then smirked, but slowly put on his clothes. He innocently asked her, "Shizune nee-san, are you alright? You look a little red."

Jiraiya giggled perversely, but stopped as soon as Tsunade glared in his direction. Naruto mentally smirked, _'Whipped, for sure.' _Tsunade turned to Shizune and whispered something in her ear, which caused the girl to utter a small meep and scuttle out of the room, a confused Tonton clutched tightly in her arms.

Naruto asked her curiously as he put on his shirt, "What did you whisper in her ear?"

Tsunade waved her hand dismissively, "Just some lady talk. Nothing you need to be concerned about."

Naruto shrugged and unsealed his jonin vest and put it on, surprising Tsunade. "You are a jonin?!"

Naruto smirked, "Let me guess, you thought I was just a mere genin, right?"

Tsunade only nodded as she watched Naruto tie up his jaw length bangs and put on his hitai-ate. She barely held her gasp- Naruto looked a literal clone of his father!

She snapped herself out of shock and slowly walked towards him, surprising him hen she lightly brushed his cheek while looking into his eyes. She whispered, "You really do look just like your father…"

Naruto smiled as he gently removed her hand, "I would be worried if I didn't. I am his son, after all."

Tsunade smiled and nodded, taking off her necklace. She pulled it over Naruto's head, smiling slightly, "The necklace, as promised."

Naruto cradled the necklace, inspecting the crustal that hung. It gave off a strange feeling, a strong sense of contentment and soothing. "Who does this belong to anyway?"

Tsunade picked up her suitcase, "My grandfather, the Shodai Hokage."

Naruto, to his credit, only raised an eyebrow in slight surprise. No wonder it felt soothing- Senju Hashirama's Mokuton was capable of calming down tailed beasts, and Naruto strongly suspected that the bloodline limit had a much higher connection to something other than just earth and water.

Naruto slung on his big and moved to the window, "Let's go then!" He then promptly jumped out of it.

Tsunade lightly scowled, "He seems to have the same hate for doors like you, Jiraiya."

Jiraiya grinned, "Why use doors when you have windows?"

Tsunade gave a weary glance to her teammate as they walked downstairs. "Am I going to regret this?"

Jiraiya pondered on this and replied, "Mostly, yes. But deep down, you will know that it would be totally worth it."

They met Shizune and Naruto downstairs, who were making light talk. Naruto turned to Tsunade with a grin, "You better be prepared, for you have a lot of work to do when we get back to Konoha!"

"I'll take whatever you dish out brat!" Tsunade assured him with a smirk. Suddenly, she moved forward and gave him a soft peck on his forehead. Moving back, she saw the bewildered look on his face, accompanied by a bright blush. Naruto looked away from the group when he couldn't will it away.

"Besides, who's going to teach you how to be a proper Hokage if not me?" She challenged.

Naruto smiled at her high spirits. _'Looks like the will of fire still burns within her.' _Out loud, he just waved his hand, "Hai, hai."

They all set off in high spirits, back home. The reward for bitter hard work really was sweet.

XXXXXXX

Hiruzen had gathered the council for a meeting to discuss the rather surprising offer he received from Sunagakure for the renewal of their alliance. After he dissolved the civilian council, what remained was the heads of various shinobi clan heads and the elders, Homura and Koharu, along with Danzo as well.

After reading the scroll out, he put it down, gauging the reactions of his council.

Koharu quietly commented, "This is certainly interesting. It seems our esteemed colleagues in Sunagakure wish to make amends for their foolishness."

Homura snorted, "Of course, they do. Recent reports suggest that Iwagakure is testing their borders. If they don't make amends with us, Iwa will crush them. However, we cannot let Iwa get a strategic advantage such as that, even if we have another flash among us now."

Surprising everyone, Danzo spoke up.

"It would be in our best interests to accept." Upon seeing the rest of the council look at him in mild shock, he internally and continued. "As you are all undoubtedly aware, I would prefer to simply crush them outright for their betrayal, but circumstances argue against it. Since we cannot punish them without drawing attention from other countries, especially Iwa, I see no harm in accepting a deal that will benefit Konohagakure far more than Sunagakure."

"Logically, you are correct, Danzo-san," Aburame Shibi droned in the usual Aburame monotone. "This offer does seem to be to our advantage, but I find your stance puzzling. You have always petitioned for Uzumaki to be trained by you as a weapon. Accepting this offer would seem to directly counter the position you've held for nearly a decade and a half."

Danzo considered how to respond and replied. "It is true that I wanted him to be trained as a weapon."

Hiruzen picked up on his friend's choice of words. "Wanted?"

Danzo knew what context his old rival was talking about. "Yes, _wanted. _At first, I had worries that he would grow up to be a weak, average shinobi or worse, a straight idiot. But he has proved his strength in the invasion, stopping a tailed beast very effectively without resorting to his own. He is the second coming of his father."

That was all he needed to say on the subject. It was a well known fact just how much Namikaze Minato was feared. While the short term he was Hokage, no nation dared to make a move against Konoha. If Konoha had someone who was just as powerful as the Yondaime, he could sleep without any worry.

"Moving on," he cleared his throat, "Sunagakure is now offering the daughter of their late Kazekage - by all reports a powerful kunoichi in making – in marriage to Uzumaki." He smiled grimly, "I suspect that Sunagakure has discovered the boy's heritage."

"Troublesome," muttered Shikaku. "If they hadn't discovered Uzumaki's heritage, this deal would be completely in our favor. I remember this Temari girl from the exam- she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. On top of that, she is a very proficient wind style user, which is quite rare in Konoha. The deal is evened out if they know Naruto's heritage. Marrying the children of two kage will produce exceptionally powerful children, not counting the fact that Naruto is the Kyuubi's jinchuriki and his children will no doubt be influenced by its power. But they don't know that."

Everyone sat back to consider his words and examine the agendas behind the offer. Hiruzen, meanwhile, was contemplating what effect would this have on Naruto. He was asking for a lot from Naruto by asking him to do this. He was sacrificing the boy's chance at love by arranging a marriage for him with a person he didn't even know. A huge weight suddenly made itself known on his shoulders, and he sighed in sadness. Sometimes, he hated being the Hokage. Decisions such as these, putting the good of the village before his shinobi, made him sick to the bone. He knew Naruto would never forgive him for this.

"At this point, I don't see any option but to accept this offer. It is slanted too far in our favor to decline without tipping our hand regarding the boy's heritage. If we chose to decline by announcing that heritage, I have no doubt Kumogakure, and ESPECIALLY Iwagakure, would react unfavorably," he announced with a heavy heart.

"We also need the boy to produce more Uzumaki, as possible future containers for the Kyuubi, if not outright shinobi for our future ranks," Danzo added, but before he could continue, a heavy, potent killing intent flooded the room.

"You are going too far, Danzo." Hiruzen whispered with narrowed eyes. "We already have placed a heavy burden on him by making the jinchuriki against his will, which he knows, mind you. He knows his heritage, and he knows that that his own father cursed him to this life. I think I can safely say on his behalf that he would sooner set the Kyuubi free rather than making his own progeny the jailors of the beast."

Danzo grit his teeth, "He will do what is asked of him by the village!"

Hiruzen snapped back, "And I have no intention of asking him to do that! I'm also sure that neither does the next Hokage! Remember Danzo," he warned his rival, "If you push him too far, you will lose him. For him, his family will always come before the village." _Until he becomes Hokage, that is _went unsaid.

Danzo put his blank mask on again, but he was seething inside. Uzumaki's children would have made some very valuable additions to his ranks of root, but it seemed Hiruzen wasn't willing to go that far. Looked like he would just have to wait for a few years.

Hiruzen turned to the council, "Since we are in agreement, let us send our response."

**AN: There, the Search for Tsunade arc concludes here. I know I missed my last update, and I'm really sorry for that, but things are only getting busier for me, so I'll have to cut down my writing time. As reassurance, I will tell you that the chapters would still be posted regularly, just not as quick as before. Now, the updates will be in two weeks, unless I find myself nothing to do but write. Some of you might complain that I might have exaggerated the fight and took out Kabuto too quickly. But you have to see that Naruto has both the FTG and rasengan.**

**I finally revealed how the romance will progress and yes, it will be a political marriage. I knew for a long time that this was the only way my story will move forward. I can only hope you guys don't have a problem.**

**Here's a question for you: Do you want me to do any specific episodes, or any particular scenarios that pop in your head? Leave your thoughts in the reviews for consideration!**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 22

**AN: Wow, the previous chapter was a hit! First order of business, I would like to apologize to those who were against my bashing of Tsunade, but I've found that in the anime, she was let off way to easily. A shinobi of her caliber missing from the village is by all counts, a missing nin. I wanted Naruto to make her know how childish and petty she is being, before offering her a realistic perspective. **

**Another reiteration is for those who think I am sticking too much to the canon, I AM REMINDING YOU AGAIN. This fic was written to explore how the Naruto universe would be if Naruto was smart. I never said I would totally change the events.**

_**Three days back, Sunagakure**_

_Baki looked over with increasing annoyance as the meeting of Sunagakure's advisory council went on. His growing frustration was mainly due to the tactless arguments (more like shouting) weren't arriving on any conclusive course of action. He tuned them out, instead choosing to focus on Temari's report of her brother's defeat. It was a shock of great magnitude to him when he had heard that Gaara had been soundly defeated._

_He shook his head mentally. 'Just great. We have a situation that requires us to act as quickly and decisively as we can and these fools can't seem to agree on anything at all.'_

_It was quite fortunate that the Sand had managed to work out a ceasefire with a leaf, but Baki knew that it was temporary at best. Konoha would not hesitate to retaliate if any of Suna's shinobi so much as scowled at them. Tensions were high, and Suna needed something to convince Konoha of their sincerity in drawing up a new alliance treaty._

_Baki cringed as he thought about the reports from the teams stationed at the Wind-Earth borders: More than average number of Iwa shinobi had been showing up. While not up to anything, Baki would bet anything that Iwa was testing their borders, looking for any weaknesses._

_In the worst case scenario, Iwa would conquer Suna, which meant that they would practically be neighbors with Konoha. Given the history between those two countries, it could signal the start of the fourth great shinobi war._

_With a sigh, he took a sip of his steaming tea to calm himself down a bit while still trying to think up of a way to regain Suna's military alliance with Konoha. Absently, he mentally recounted just how they lost: they invaded Konoha…Konoha forces were ready…..Orochimaru attacked the Sandaime hokage….Temari and Kankuro took Gaara into the forests…followed by the Uchiha….Gaara went crazy…unleashed Shukaku…stopped by a giant-_

_The epiphany hit him with such force that he almost spat out the tea he was drinking. Almost scrambling for Temari's report, he flipped pages until he found what he was looking for:-_

_Gaara was cleanly and efficiently defeated by Uzumaki (or is it Namikaze?) Naruto._

_There was the answer and the epiphany he was looking for. Namikaze Naruto. Son of the legendary Yondaime Hokage._

_A child of the Hokage….savior of the leaf….._

_Pieces of a plan rapidly came together in a mind, forming a picture that was not the best solution, but perhaps the only solution they had at the moment._

_He stood up, clearing his throat to gather everyone's attention. "Honorable members of the council, some new facts have come to my attention, and I believe I have found a solution to our current problem."_

_He had the undivided attention of some of the most politically powerful people in Suna. He could not afford to go back now, nor could he afford to make a single miscalculation._

"_As you may all know, Iwa is currently testing out our borders. Our only solution to this problem is to somehow regain our alliance with Konoha. This is the only way we can buy enough time to recover from the loss of our forces. This is where our problem currently stands: How do we prove we won't betray Konoha again?"_

_A twinge of satisfaction rose up inside Baki as he saw the winces from several of the council members, reminding them that they had indeed, betrayed Konoha, falling into Orochimaru's manipulations._

_Mutters were rising as the members considered his point. Baki took a deep breath and relaxed. The next statement was going to create tides._

"_If I may have your attention once more," he spoke over the mutters, silencing them, "I am not yet finished. Before having an alliance with us, Konoha had an unshakable with another village, the Village hidden in Whirlpools. We need to procure back that level of an alliance with our….former ally."_

_Yoshin, one of the more senior members of the council and one of the people who Baki actually respected for his…relatively sensible arguments, spoke up. "How do you propose we do that, Baki?"_

_Baki stared dead in his eyes, "We follow the same procedure that they did, to achieve what they were able to achieve."_

_Seeing some confused faces in the council, Baki elaborated. "The alliance between Konoha and Uzushiogakure no sato was sealed by a marriage between the Shodai Hokage and a woman named Uzumaki Mito. The alliance lasted for decades, until Uzushiogakure fell to the combined attack of Kumo and Iwa. We can use that tradition to regain our alliance, which might be stronger than our previous one."_

_He was pleased to see that some of the members were actually thinking upon this. However, one of them stood up, almost foaming at the mouth. Hiroto Renji was someone who always made Baki wonder just how he managed to get on the council. He was a hot-headed person, exploding over the smallest of arguments and had none of the tact that was required to play the incredibly subtle game of politics. Also, he took utmost glee in pointing out faults at other members, while he himself never participated actively in any argument. Baki suspected that Renji feared looking too stupid._

"_You can't possibly be serious! Like you said only moments ago," he sneered while saying 'you', "We need to recover our forces from the invasion. Which means, we need EVERY shinobi we have! Why would we offer one in the first place, and why would __**they **__accept in the first place?!"_

_Baki resisted the urge to rub his head at the moment. It would seem rather rude. "I thought it was quite obvious, council member, that given the history between the two, Konoha cannot afford to have Iwa at their doorstep."_

_Before Renji could blow up once again, another member spoke up, the slightest hints of irritation in his voice. "Just what are you trying to tell us, Baki?"_

_Baki picked up the report written by Temari of the fight that took place between Naruto and Gaara. "I will summarize this for you, as you all don't have this and it would take a long time for everyone to read this. Temari stated in her report that Gaara was, quote, "Soundly defeated" by a single genin, even after he had fully manifested his bijuu." He almost rolled his eyes at the exaggerated reaction that followed. "She states that Uzumaki Naruto, the aforementioned genin, could create water out of thin air and listen to this carefully, _flash _to places faster than she could even begin to follow."_

_He briefly put the report down to add his own point. "When I say flash, I mean it in the literal sense, council members."_

_He resumed from where he had left off, "He then summoned a massive, dark blue fox of all things, with seven tails, that was almost as large as Shukaku."_

_Baki looked up again, "Now, we don't know why Uzumaki has a summoning contract for foxes, so-"_

"_Could it be that he is the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi?"_

_Everyone turned to look at the council member who said this. Baki thought hard about how to reply; the speculation was actually quite considerable. Why else would someone be able to summon foxes?_

"_It could be," Baki carefully said, slowly as to emphasize the point, "But we don't have any evidence to substantiate that speculation. I have to stress on this council member: do not hold onto that speculation. For all we know, the boy could have stumbled upon it by accident. As I said, there was nothing that pointed towards Uzumaki having the Kyuubi inside him. Not even a wisp of demonic chakra, as is the trademark feeling everyone gets when near a jinchuriki."_

_Baki was very uncomfortable with this topic, so he decided to move on. "Moving on, a relatively recent report suggested that he is apprenticed to Jiraiya of the Sannin. They were both spotted travelling together through a town."_

_Yoshin once again raised a valid argument. "It could be that they were simply on a mission together. Nothing you say points towards the claim of being an apprentice."_

_Baki conceded the point with a nod, "Indeed, it could be that as well. But keep in mind that in the past, no reports have ever stated that Jiraiya-sama needed someone with him on a mission, given how powerful he is. Why would he allow anyone to travel with him unless they were being trained or taught by him? Also, he was highly proficient in fuinjutsu, just like Jiraiya-sama is."_

_Yoshino nodded thoughtfully and sat back. Baki continued with his previous statement, "As I was saying, he seems to be apprenticed to Jiraiya-sama, and speaking of apprentice, I believe you are all aware as to who the last apprentice of the man was?"_

_Thankfully, everyone nodded._

_Baki rested his arms on the table. This was the crux of his argument. "To those who were not present at the chunin exams," which was everyone, excluding himself, "Uzumaki Naruto has been revealed to the world as Namikaze Minato's only child."_

_He dropped the bomb on them, waiting to see their reactions. And they were just like he expected them to be. Most of the members' jaws dropped in disbelief, some even choking on air. A few sensible members such as Yoshin were taking deep breaths, trying to force rational thought as to how this was possible. Renji was the only one who was shaking his head, whispering under his breath, "This can't be, this can't be…"_

_A member asked after regaining their wits. "Do you have any evidence to substantiate your claim?"_

_The question was asked slowly, for the member still had difficulties believing the latest revelation. Baki wordlessly picked up his file again and flipped to the photo of Naruto. He then put up the file on the table in such a way that everyone would be able to see._

_It only took a moment a moment for everyone to connect the dots. Yoshino shook his head in slight awe, "Looks like you were right, Baki. He really does look like his father."_

_Baki added with a smirk, "Not only that, but he can use Hiraishin no jutsu just like his father_

"_But what does this have to do with us regaining our alliance?"_

_Baki grinned as he put his proposal forward. "It should be quite obvious by now: We offer Temari in marriage as a gesture of good faith on our part."_

_Renji frowned, "Why Temari? She is the daughter of our late kage, and is quite skilled. Couldn't we offer someone less significant?"_

_Baki looked at Renji, fully intent on shutting him up, "Believe me, council member when I say this. If we are going to offer a marriage proposal to someone as important as Namikaze Naruto, we have to ensure that the person from our side is of equal status as him. Naruto and Temari, both are children of a Kage. Any children that would result from their marriage would become formidable shinobi when they grow up. We can insert a clause stating that their eldest child must become the liaison for both of our villages after becoming a chunin."_

_Baki could have said that their eldest child should be married back into Suna, but they were in no position to make any demands from Konoha. It was best to stay on the safe side and make him/her a liaison after becoming a chunin, or a dual citizen. Also, the news of the Namikaze having an heir would have probably reached Iwa by now. Given how much the son is like the father and how Iwa feared him, their safety could be guaranteed._

…_Or, Iwa would probably try to assassinate Naruto before he became too powerful for their liking. But that was a risk they had to take. _

_Regain the alliance, or face Iwa alone._

_The council pondered over Baki's proposal. It was more than enough to gain back their alliance. Perhaps Konoha was benefitting too much from this, but they had no choice other than to offer Konoha as much as they can. Like Baki, they came to the conclusion that they really weren't in a position to demand anything from Konoha. But they would have a powerful ally once again, with powerful shinobi in their command._

_Soon, everyone came to an agreement and the decision was made official. The offer was sent, proposing a marriage contract to the Konoha council._

_All they had to do now was wait._

XXXXXXX

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

The yell echoed throughout the building, the rage in it clear for all those who hear it. Temari gave her hottest glare yet to Baki, who was standing right in front of her and her siblings, doing his best not to show any nervousness or fear. Unsurprisingly, Kankuro found himself hiding from his sister's wrath…behind the back of his younger brother.

The former was quite old. Kankuro had hid from his sister a number of times in the past, for he was quite scared of her. Whenever she got angry, he was her usual outlet for that anger, for neither of them dared to get close to Gaara. Only the spot to hide had changed.

Ever since they had returned to their home, Kankuro had seen an incredible change in Gaara. Gaara had stopped threatening everyone who came in his sight, and wasn't radiating bloodlust constantly. Perhaps the best thing was that he hadn't killed once upon his return from Konoha.

However, the one part that didn't change was that Gaara never got afraid of Temari when she was enraged. Kankuro knew Gaara had no grasp of how to interpret certain feelings, but time heals all wounds.

Anyway, the point was that his sister was enraged beyond all belief, and he was using Gaara as a human shield.

Temari was not in the best of moods as she stood in front of her sensei. Carefully reigning in her anger, she managed to keep her voice steady as she spoke. "Why are you doing this to me?!"

Baki kept his face carefully neutral, trying not to show the pity he felt for his soon to be former student. Pity was the last thing Temari needed right now. _'This reaction was not exactly unexpected…..in fact, I was more worried about how Gaara would react. It's nothing short of a miracle he hasn't used sand burial on me already.'_

He took a deep breath and began his explanation. "This is a direct order from the council itself, Temari. We need this to cement our alliance with the leaf once more."

Temari grit her teeth, unwilling to just lose like this. "So you will just offer me up like a lamb to be SACRIFICED?! WASN'T THERE ANY OTHER WAY?!"

Baki shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry Temari, but there was no other way. Do you think this order would have gotten passed if there was?"

Temari just wanted to scream her throat hoarse. So much injustice was being done to her, and she couldn't do anything about it. What was worse was that, they seemed to think she was the only one who could perform this duty, and they were right!

Kankuro was too much of an idiot to do this, and the village would sooner sacrifice their shinobi than give up their jinchuriki, never minding the fact that Gaara was a former blood lusting psychopath, so there was a dense air of mistrust around him.

She painfully reminded herself that a shinobi's duty is to endure and sacrifice for their village, no matter what the circumstances. "I don't like this, but I know that I have to do my duty, sensei."

Baki smiled sadly and nodded, "That you do."

"Has my future husband been decided?"

Baki considered whether or not to tell her. However, before he could say anything, Gaara spoke up. "I want to know as well, Baki."

Ok, now there was no way to back out of this. Even though Gaara restrained himself greatly from killing anyone in his sight, Baki was not going to take a risk. Gaara's newfound protectiveness for his siblings was apparent, and it was nothing short of a miracle that he hadn't killed Baki for giving his sister away to Konoha, just like that.

Clearing his throat, he simply answered the question. "Yes."

He sweat a little when he saw three sets of eyes looking at him expectantly. One was pure curiosity, the other was curiosity mixed with suspicion, and the last one was impatience and rage, combined with acceptance. You can guess who they are.

Temari tapped her foot in irritation. "Well, out with it! Who is it?"

Baki took a deep breath. _Here goes nothing. _"He is the same person who defeated Gaara. You may know him as Namikaze Naruto."

Temari blinked, and blinked again. And blinked again. Her thoughts drifted back to her hot, make-out session with the blonde in the alley. She didn't realize it, but her face was slowly turning red enough, enough to give Gaara's hair a run for its money.

Baki frowned in concern. "Temari?"

"…I see. I have a lot to think about, sensei. I'll see you later!"

Completely unlike her, Temari turned and hastily walked away, leaving a confused audience behind her. Baki had a puzzled expression- Temari never acted like this before. But then again, this situation is a first for her, so this might have prompted a new response as well. He turned to the other two, "You two are dismissed as well. You best leave her alone for a while. This is a very big and sudden decision she has been forced to agree to. It's best if she gathers her thoughts for a while."

With that, Baki left. Gaara turned to Kankuro, a very rare, confused expression on his face. "Kankuro, do you know why nee-san left?"

Kankuro shrugged in confusion, "Even I don't know Gaara. You can never know what's going on in women's heads."

XXXXXXX

Temari hastily made her way to the training ground that was reserved only for the Kazekages, however as the children of a kage, they got access to it without any problem. She made her way to her favorite spot, on the lowest branch of one of the few trees that were in the training grounds.

She climbed onto the branch, and finally let out the giggle she had been keeping inside her. _'It's so surreal! I mean, what are the odds?! I never imagined that this would happen!'_

The giggles receded and a soft smile to its place as she gazed at the setting sun. She still couldn't wrap her head around it. She was going to get married to Naruto of all people! The same Naruto who she had feelings for, and had only grown from the time she had come back to Suna. In all honesty, she never thought that she could form a relationship with him as much as she wanted to, and she pretty much believed that he thought the same. She was of Suna and he was of Konoha. But it was almost as if the universe wanted to prove both of them wrong, but for the good.

Then the confusion and hesitance hit her, with a pinch of insecurity. Was she really ready to get married? No. Granted, she did have, dare she say, strong feelings for the blonde, but were they strong enough that she could happily live with him as a permanent partner? She didn't know that. Was she ready to make this sort of commitment so early in her life?

Her feelings for Naruto and her duty as a kunoichi of her village were making her thoughts nothing less than a mess. Would Naruto be happy that he would have to spend his whole life bonded to her as her husband? What if he isn't happy?

She groaned as she rubbed her head, trying to make some sense out of the mess that was her mind. In attempt to block out the incoming headache, she diverted the train of thought to the political implications of the marriage. She was the daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage, and Naruto was the only son of the Yondaime Hokage, arguably the most dangerous man the leaf had ever produced, and it was clear as drinking water that Naruto was well on his way to claim that title for himself. The marriage between two children of two Kages was sure an effective way to cement an alliance between two villages. Not only that, but her interest in Naruto had led her to attempt to study his background when she was back in Suna.

Shocked was an understatement, to say the least. She had known that Naruto went by the surname of Uzumaki, so she researched that first. Interestingly, that was the name of the clan that was cousins with the legendary Senju clan, and allies of Konoha. The Uzumaki clan lived in Uzushiogakure no sato, the land hidden in whirlpools. But it was wiped out out in the last war, with the combined efforts of Kumo and Iwa.

But apparently there was a survivor, who made it to Konoha and married the Yondaime to give birth to Naruto. Of course, since there was only one survivor, the clan was then given a seat in the council, as a gesture of the friendship they used to have with the village. Which meant that Naruto was now the sole heir of the Uzumaki clan, soon to be head, because of undoubtedly making chunin.

Another shocking fact was that Naruto was the head of two clans, not one. It was no secret that the person who becomes a kage, his name is automatically granted clan status. In essence, Naruto was the soon to be head of Namikaze clan as well.

He would become a very powerful figure in village politics, with two clan seats backing him. That was a lot of power and responsibility for a single person. She thought with some relief that he would have her to share the responsibilities. He wouldn't have to be alone in that.

Finally her thoughts took a turn that was long coming. Her face turned red as she suddenly thought about the implications of her marriage to Naruto. More specifically, what they have to do on their wedding night.

Temari's entire face went the shade of Gaara's hair red. She recalled what they had done in the alley that night, her and Naruto. The places his hands had touched….

She let out an embarrassed squeal as she put her face in hands. Why was she getting so embarrassed?! It didn't make any sense!

In the end, her thoughts came to this: While she was happy that she was getting to marry someone like Naruto and not some snob, like the Uchiha, she wanted to see if the bond that was there between them had the potential to grow stronger or not. Whether both of them were truly capable of loving each other or not.

And she wouldn't say no to any more….._naughty _things that happened between them along the way, that helped reinforce that bond.

Nope, not at all.

XXXXXXX

Tsunade watched amused, did Shizune, as both Naruto and Jiraiya quarreled like children. This was the first time she was seeing Naruto get so heated in an argument so childish such as this.

"-lame as hell, mind you! You are always going on and on and _on, _about how you're such an awesome shinobi! And yet, you got _nailed _by her perverted attack?! You ero-sennin!"

"URU SAI!"

The two of them were literally butting heads, teeth grounding audibly. Naruto was the first to back off, a smirk on his face. It felt good to act childish once in a while, especially when he is making fun of his perverted godfather. "You know I'm right, ero-sennin."

"You know Naruto, that's quite an apt nickname for Jiraiya," Tsunade chuckled in mirth. Jiraiya's head instantly dropped in depression.

Naruto nodded graciously, "In all honesty, I never really thought about it. It simply came out of my mouth at the moment."

The journey back to Konoha had been covered in very high spirits. Tsunade finally had an air around her that felt like the Hokage she was about to become. Soon enough, the gates of Konoha came within their sight, the size of an ant.

Jiraiya scoffed, "Hmph! You people have no respect for me!"

He received three deadpan stares at the same time, causing him to chuckle nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. Naruto turned his head away, spotting the gates of Konoha in the distance. All of a sudden, a thought popped into his head, causing him to grin challengingly. Both Tsunade and Shizune noticed the grin, and knew a devious thought had just taken root in the crazy mind of Uzumaki Naruto.

"Hey, ero-sennin!"

The call caused Jiraiya to almost cry at him in indignance, but stopped when he noticed the grin on that face. "What's on your mind, gaki?"

Naruto pointed his index finger in the direction of the gates. "You can see them, right?"

The three of them had to squint a little, but nodded after a moment. "We've reached. What about it?"

Naruto's smirk could have put almost every ANBU in Konoha on alert. "Care for a race? Just you and me."

Jiraiya laughed haughtily and said, "Brat! You are a hundred years too young to even challenge the like of me!"

But then he added with a cocky smile, "But I wouldn't mind showing you just how inferior you are."

"Excuse me," an irritated voice cut into their challenge and both turned to face an annoyed Tsunade, her right hand cocked on her hip and foot tapping the ground in irritation. Shizune simply stood behind her, not knowing what to do. "I hope you weren't planning to forget that we are here too!"

Naruto's face suddenly changed into a completely innocent expression, something that caused Tsunade to stiffen in guard. She rather preferred his devious expression rather than this. At least that look suited him; this look almost had her convinced that Naruto was a completely innocent boy!

"Oh no, not at all!" Naruto denied with a shake of his head as he took off his backpack, holding it out to Tsunade, who raised an eyebrow in question. Naruto just put his hand forward, "Just hold it for a second please?"

Tsunade begrudgingly took the backpack and slung it over her right shoulder, only because the brat said please though. She was confused when Naruto then walked around her so that he was standing right behind her and Shizune. "You are a part of this race as well. In fact," he slung his hands over the shoulders of both of them, "You both are the referees." With that, he flashed them to the marker he had put on the gates of Konoha.

Naruto turned to Jiraiya, who shook his head and said, "Tsunade will beat you into the ground for not warning her."

Naruto waved dismissively, "She won't. Even if she attempts to do that, she's way too slow to catch someone as fast as me. Also, a shinobi must always be on guard."

Jiraiya snorted but said nothing. He liked this characteristic of Naruto; the kid didn't give a damn about who wanted to beat him and had the balls and skills to pull off such a stunt. He picked up a pebble and bounced it in his hand. "You ready?"

Naruto came to stand beside him, having deactivated the resistance seals for this. "Ready when you are."

Jiraiya flicked his finger, sending the pebble flying into the air. The both tensed as it neared the ground, and as soon as it touched the ground, they both disappeared.

Tsunade and Shizune blinked as they suddenly found themselves standing right at the gates of Konoha. The gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu, blinked in shock as they found themselves suddenly staring at one of the legendary figures of Konoha. Senju Tsunade was not only considered the strongest kunoichi in the elemental nations, but also the most beautiful as well. And right now they found themselves scared, for her beautiful face was angry as hell.

Tsunade clenched her fist and snarled, "That BRAT! Didn't even give me a warning and forcing me into this petty race!"

However, her rant was cut off as two dust clouds rapidly made their way to her position. Remembering why Naruto had sent her here like this, she grudgingly kept an eye on them, ready to see who was winner.

Both figures shot post her right into the village, leaving a surprised Tsunade and Shizune. They had both seen who was the winner. Of course, there was little doubt….

Jiraiya huffed as he tried to catch his breath, looking at an equally huffing Naruto. The brat had almost beat him! His reflexes were as scary as ever, for Naruto had dashed as soon as the stone was a millimeter above the ground, with Jiraiya immediately dashing after. If not for the flex of his chakra near the end, he would have totally lost.

"Would you look at that? Jiraiya almost lost to a thirteen year old." Both of them turned to seen a smirking Tsunade walking up to them, carelessly throwing Naruto's bag at him. Jiraiya looked away petulantly.

"But I didn't! Also, I was carrying extra luggage!"

Naruto slung his bag, "I will concede to my defeat. You are better than me, ero-sennin….for now at least."

Jiraiya's triumphant smirk faltered at the end of Naruto's sentence. Of course, he planned on taking the brat on a training trip sometime later, and he had no doubts that Naruto would surpass him.

Naruto faced the three of them, "Alright, my mission finishes over here. I'll report tomorrow morning for debriefing, baa-chan. Enjoy your walk of fame, _Hokage-sama." _He added teasingly before disappearing in a flash.

Tsunade's eye twitched in irritation, before a small smile of fondness came onto her face. "He may look like his father, and even act like him most of the time, but he sure has his mother's moments as well."

With that, they made their way to the Hokage tower. Naruto wasn't wrong- people were not discreet at all when they saw two of the Sannin walking together, one of which had returned from an absence of almost a decade and a half. Tsunade found herself smiling against her will as she gazed upon the home of her precious people once again. People were smiling in relief, after seeing two, powerful shinobi of Konoha walking through the streets. Things were still a bit shaky among the civilians, but Tsunade's appearance might cause them to settle back down, Jiraiya mused.

As they reached towards the Hokage's tower and in a few minutes, the Hokage's office, Tsunade found herself having an epiphany. It hit her that she really had missed her sensei. Jiraiya saw this and allowed her a few moments to collect herself.

Tsunade took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. When she was ready, she raised a slightly shaking hand and knocked the door three times.

"Enter!"

The same, raspy old voice that she had heard since her genin days, full of wisdom, gave the command. Tsunade opened the door and was greeted with what she should have expected, but still filled her with a strange amount of relief and nostalgia.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was sitting at the Hokage's desk, doing paperwork. His eyes lifted up and widened in surprise. He slowly put down his writing brush, and stood up, never wavering his eyes from Tsunade. When he spoke, his voice conveyed suffering and relief, at the same time. "Tsunade…."

Tsunade herself was finding it hard to reign in her tears. It hit her once again- if it hadn't been for Naruto, Hiruzen would not have been standing here right now. He would either have been in a hospital or worse, buried in a grave, six feet under the ground.

"….I'm back, sensei." Tsunade said as she gave the old man a watery smile. It seemed that she had missed him more than she had thought. Sarutobi was more than just a sensei to her. He had been more like a father to all of her team. He nurtured them with his own two hands. He might have been tough as hell, but at the end of the day, he treated team 7 like his own children.

To her surprise, he laughed. Laughed hard, and Jiraiya and the ANBU in the room stared open mouthed, for that was the heartiest laugh they had heard from the Hokage in years. Finally, when he stopped laughing, he said, "I'm so happy to see you back, Tsunade."

He gave the signal to his guards to give them some privacy. Once they had left, he sealed the room completely. He then walked around the table and pulled out his secret stash of sake from the fake compartment in his drawer. He took out three cups and poured all of them a drink. He winked as he handed them the sake, "I normally restrain myself, but I believe this occasion calls for some celebration."

Tsunade smirked as she took her cup, followed by Jiraiya. They clinked their cups together and drank it all in one gulp, with Tsunade giving it an approving nod. "Nice sake."

Hiruzen smirked, "Being Hokage has privileges, you know."

Jiraiya sighed happily as he refilled and drank once again. "I should have invited the gaki to drink with us. After all," he winked at his teammate, "He performed his first S-rank mission quite impressively."

Hiruzen made a sound of realization. "Ah yes! We should have called him. To celebrate his first successful mission as a jonin, that too S-rank! I knew I made a correct choice in promoting him. I want your report on this, Jiraiya. I know Naruto's will reach to me by tomorrow morning."

Jiraiya nodded, "Will do, sensei."

Tsunade frowned, "How do you know that his report will reach you tomorrow morning? He said that in front of us, not you."

Hiruzen smiled, "It has been his habit ever since he started doing missions. He always gives in his report a day after the mission is completed. A very peculiar habit though, if I do say so myself. I never quite found out the reason why." He walked around his table, "However, he has been very consistent, so I have no reason to doubt that he wouldn't deliver it tomorrow morning."

Before they could continue catching up and discussing about Naruto, there was a knock at the door. All three of them gave the door an annoyed look, before Sarutobi put his sake away, sitting back on his chair. Tsunade and Jiraiya stood in front of his desk, as there were no chairs for them to sit on. Hiruzen unsealed the privacy seals and called his ANBU back. Once they were back in their positions, he gave the order.

"Enter!"

Hiruzen and Jiraiya were able to keep their faces blank, however Tsunade's tongue soured as she took in the arrivals. The elders, Homura and Koharu, had been her least favorite people when she was a genin and chunin under her sensei. She schooled her expression as they bowed to her.

"Welcome back, Tsunade-sama," they bowed. Even though the respect was shown, she still considered them highly annoyed. A pair of old, senile fools completely set in their ways of thinking. They were also quite assertive, wanting their opinion to be the only decision there is, despite of them only being advisors to the Hokage. They also believed that they knew best, if she remembered correctly. She would have to talk to sensei about doing something about them. They should have retired quite some time ago.

They looked above from their bow and then turned their attention to the Hokage, completely ignoring the other Sannin in the room. Of course, Jiraiya had no problem in returning the favor. He never liked them in the first place, and they fell from his eyes even more when he heard from Hiruzen just how vocal they had been against Naruto's promotion to chunin, let alone jonin, even if he was deserving.

"Hokage-sama, now that Tsunade-sama is here, perhaps we should brief her on the recent happenings and news from Sunagakure?"

Homura's suggestion earned a nod from Hiruzen and a questioning eyebrow from Jiraiya and Tsunade. Hiruzen took out a scroll from his drawer and handed it to his successor. "I want to hear what your thoughts are on this, Tsunade."

Jiraiya moved closer to Tsunade to read over the contents of the scroll. Both their eyebrows rose in surprise and incredulity as they finished reading it. Shocked looks were sent to the old Hokage, who sighed and said, "I have already given my approval to this. They made an offer that would have been otherwise foolish to refuse."

Jiraiya pulled Tsunade to the side to whisper to her, "This is ridiculous! They can't to do this to a clan head, can they?"

Tsunade eyes widened a bit at that. She had forgotten that after becoming jonin, Naruto had essentially become clan head to Uzumaki and Namikaze clans…..in all but official capacity. She grudgingly said, "He hasn't been officially appointed as such and has yet to take his seat at the council. This wouldn't have been possible if he had been clan head in official capacity without his permission, but since he's not, it could be, sorry, _has _been done. He can't refuse the order of the Hokage, Jiraiya."

Jiraiya frowned, obviously not liking the notion that his sensei dictated the life of his godson like this. Naruto would now have to marry someone from another village for his duty. He would never get a shot at love on his own.

But like Tsunade said, Naruto was not in any capacity to refuse. Tsunade did not like this as well. She had slowly taken a liking to Naruto on their way back to Konoha, and she saw what kind of a person Naruto was. He did not deserve to be treated like this. She racked her brain, trying to see the positive side to this. After a few moments, a stray thought caused her to back up and a small smile formed on her face.

She faced the Hokage and the elders. "The full council has agreed to this?"

Hiruzen nodded in affirmative.

The elders nodded as well, "Hai."

Her smile turned into a small grin. She needed to double check if her sensei had thought this through from all angles or not, before making his decision. "Does the council also believe that Suna is aware of Naruto's heritage?"

Hiruzen frowned and looked at Jiraiya in confusion, who cursed mentally and gave him an apologetic look. He turned back to Tsunade, "It seems that Jiraiya forgot to tell you what happened in the chunin exams, Tsunade. Naruto publicly announced his heritage. It is safe to assume to by now, all the elemental nations know just who Naruto is."

Tsunade gave an annoyed look to Jiraiya, who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Deciding that she would deal with him later, she asked them her next question. "Then am I to assume that the council has also thought about the domestic ramifications of Naruto's marriage?"

Her grin widened when a look of confusion passed among the elders, Jiraiya and her sensei. However, Sarutobi' s eyes widened as he caught onto the meaning of her question. An expression passed over his face as he viciously cursed himself for not thinking about this sooner, but then a grin passed over his face when he realized what it meant for Naruto. Jiraiya was a little slow to catch up, but then too grinned when he came to the same realization as her and sensei.

The elders still hadn't caught up to them. Koharu spoke for both of them, "We're not sure what you mean, Tsunade-sama."

With a smirk worthy to match Naruto's in deviousness, she explained. "When Naruto marries, he will officially have claimed his position as the the head of both Namikaze and Uzumaki clans. Meaning he will inherit everything from both of those clans including funds, property and land in those clans' possessions. That also includes the seats of both the clans on the council. Surely you realized this before sending the reply?"

The faces of both the elders had dropped in dismay. They never realized that by marrying off Naruto, they were pushing for him to become clan head for two clans. How could they have overlooked something as important as this?!

Hiruzen was enjoying the looks on the faces of his former teammates' faces. To add into their dismay, he added with a chuckle, "Of course, I should have realized this when I appointed him as a jonin."

Homura's and Koharu's faces showed horror by now. They had completely overlooked the fact that a person becomes eligible for head of clan position upon becoming a chunin or jonin. They were too biased against Naruto, too focused on trying to keep him under their control that they lost sight of other things. They should have realized this the moment Hiruzen appointed him a jonin.

Naruto was already clan head long before this discussion was taking place. It just needed to be officialized.

Hiruzen looked entirely too amused. "It seems you need a moment, Homura and Koharu. Perhaps you would like to step outside the room? Me and my students have a few things to catch up on."

The elders walked out of room in a daze.

The three of them finally let loose their chuckles, or in Jiraiya's case, laughter. Jiraiya said as he calmed down, "It's about time someone taught _them _a lesson."

Hiruzen smirked as he looked at his student, "Looks like I made the right choice in choosing my successor. You know you're worthy if you are able to outsmart them."

However, the atmosphere turned serious when Jiraiya brought up another concern. "However, we must not overlook the consequences of Naruto revealing his heritage."

Hiruzen and Tsunade immediately caught on to what he was saying. The former had been worrying about this for a long time. Minato's enemies now had a new target to focus on. If they couldn't get revenge on the yondaime, they would take it out on their son.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had flashed to his apartment and immediately disassembled his backpack. After taking a very satisfying hot water shower in his bathroom, he cooked himself fish, rice and eggs. Preservative seals were oh so awesome.

After he finished his meal, he sat on the couch and put on a movie. He wondered on what to do. After finishing an S-rank mission, it was mandatory for the shinobi to at least take a week of leave, maximum two weeks. However, Naruto knew he was quickly going to get bored of doing nothing for a week straight. He mentally recounted what he couldn't do.

He was in no mood to work on seals right now. Training was out of the question, because he had just returned from a mission. He had nothing to read, and he had no video games, for he was firm of the belief that they rot your mind.

'**You sure are acting like a brat right now, you know,' **came the voice from within.

Naruto rolled his eyes. _'Not all of us can sleep on a whim like you, Kurama. You are sleeping almost all the time when you have nothing to do.'_

Naruto heard a scoff. **'Whatever brat. What I want to say is you could seek your pineapple headed friend for a game of shogi. Good exercise for your feeble, human mind.'**

Naruto ignored the insult as he thought about the suggestion. It was not bad at all, and he would have fun teasing Shikamaru about his added duties as well.

He got up from the couch and went to his room to change clothes. A minute later, he emerged in something casual. A dirty white, long sleeves t-shirt folded to his elbows, with dark blue jeans. Over the t-shirt, he wore a black shirt with buttons opened, sleeves folded till elbows. The necklace Tsunade had given him hung out of his t-shirt.

All in all, he looked as cool as a breeze.

He stepped outside of his building and began a slow walk, having located the chakra signature of his friend in the training ground 10. He allowed his feet to carry him as he thought about the possible changes that could happen now that Tsunade was back. On the way back, Jiraiya had once told him that Tsunade had once asked Sarutobi permission to start a medic training program. However, it was wartime, and there weren't enough shinobi to spare for the training program, not to mention the lack of interest on the part of many shinobi.

So lost he was in his thoughts that he failed to notice the appreciative looks from the female population that were being sent in his direction. Girls that were eight to nine years old were blushing while looking at him while the girls his age were shamelessly checking him out. But again, he was too lost in his thoughts to really notice that.

He was about to turn towards the training grounds when he sighed. This was getting boring very fast. "Come out, Konohamaru! I won't tell you a second time!"

As soon as he had shouted, a brown haired boy darted around the corner, and came running over to him. "Naruto nii-chan! Play ninja with me!"

That earned him a harsh finger flick, right in the center of the forehead. Konohamaru yelped, immediately rubbing the spot.

Naruto looked at his unofficial charge with some amusement. Konohamaru wanting to play ninja with him was a common request by now. But since today was a day on which Naruto had nothing to do, why not give a few life lessons to the kid. Teach him the real meaning of being a ninja.

Konohamaru was immediately indignant. "What was that for?"

"I won't be playing ninja with you today, Konohamaru," came the bored reply. Then he frowned, "Also, aren't you supposed to be in the academy right now?"

Indeed, it was only noon right now, so the young Sarutobi should have been having lunch in his class. Konohamaru crossed his arms and pouted, "Iruka-sensei's lessons are very boring!"

Naruto let out a small chuckle, "You aren't wrong in saying that. However," his face adopted a stern expression, "That excuse is not enough for you to skip classes. They are teaching you things that will allow you to survive as a shinobi. Even I found those classes dreadfully boring, but I always followed what was going on."

No need to tell the kid that he skipped quite a few classes himself because of his stupidity act. Of course, he had also been way ahead of his class.

"Also, you should start training seriously instead of playing ninja in your free time. It is never too early for a shinobi to start training on chakra control!"

Konohamaru frowned, "Does this mean you will no longer play ninja with me?"

Naruto sighed, trying to decide how to best explain this. He looked around, thoughts running wild, when he spotted the Hokage monument. An idea sprang into his head and without giving any warning to the kid, he grabbed his shoulder and flashed away.

Konohamaru blinked when he suddenly found himself standing over the head of the Yondaime. He shrieked and backed off, only to collide with something solid. Turning back, he saw the face of Naruto, looking over the village.

"Being a ninja is not a game, Konohamaru," Naruto said softly, looking into the eyes of his charge. "Sure, kids can play, but in the world that we grow up, it is best not to treat it as a game."

He sat down, pulling the kid down with him. Konohamaru sat beside his idol and frowned, not understanding what Naruto was trying to say. "What do you mean, Naruto nii-chan?"

Naruto did not look away from the village. "Let me ask you something, Konohamaru. What do you think it means to be a shinobi?"

Konohamaru opened his mouth to answer…..and stopped. He thought really hard, something he very rarely did. It was obviously a question that had a deep answer. He thought and thought, but the answer was lost to him.

"To be a shinobi means to endure. A shinobi is the one who can follow or lead others into any darkness and work together to overcome that darkness and make it out the other side. A shinobi walks towards danger when everyone else is running away, that is because it is the duty of a shinobi to look at any foe and say- "Bring it." That is because shinobi exist to protect those who can't protect themselves."

Naruto recited the same answer that jiji had given to him years ago. The answer had a deep and profound effect on him. It was one of the main reasons he pushed himself so hard every day to get strong, so he could protect his loved ones. He hoped it would have the same effect on Konohamaru.

The said boy was deeply thinking about Naruto's answer. He had never thought like that, always thinking it as a game, that being a shinobi meant to throw cool jutsu around. He had never imagined there would be such a deep reason behind what being a shinobi meant. Only one thing came to his mind right now. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Your grandfather almost lost his life in the invasion."

The words were like a splash of cold water down Konohamaru's spine. The announcement filled him with dread, which was visible in a violent shiver on the outside. "W-What? H-How?!"

Naruto gave an expressionless look to the boy, "He acted like a true shinobi. I told you, didn't I? Being a shinobi is not a game, a Hokage less so."

Konohamaru viciously tried to hold back his tears upon hearing the news of his grandfather. He had never known about this. Why was Naruto nii-chan telling him all of this?!

"To teach you a lesson," came the answer, almost as if Naruto had read his thoughts. "I am telling you this to teach you a lesson, Konohamaru. You want to become Hokage, don't you?"

At the mention of his ultimate goal, Konohamaru hastily wiped his tears off. "Y-Yeah!"

Naruto stood up, brushing his pants. "Then start taking your training seriously. Not too much, though. Take ample time to rest and relax, so your body can appropriately recover as well. Eat healthy food in ample amounts, without hesitating. Just don't joke around when it comes to your duties as a shinobi, alright?"

Konohamaru stood at attention, determination coursing through him. "Hai, Naruto nii-chan!"

Naruto smiled and ruffled the boy's hair. "Good. And if you need any help on how to properly train, don't hesitate to ask. Become a shinobi first, then I'll tell you what it means to be Hokage, alright?"

Konohamaru smiled and nodded. He would make his brother and grandfather proud of him, by becoming a true shinobi. "Hai, Naruto nii-chan. But don't you forget this," he pointed a finger at the blonde challengingly, "We are still rivals for Hokage!"

Naruto chuckled, "That's the spirit! Now let's get you back to the academy!"

He put a hand on Konohamaru's shoulder and flashed to the only person in the academy who had his Hiraishin seal on himself.

XXXXXXX

Iruka sat annoyed at his desk as the lunch hour slowly came to an end. He had finished his lunch in the first fifteen minutes, and spent the rest of the hour thinking about the latest menace of his class, the grandson of Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Konohamaru.

The boy almost always made trouble for him, even more so than what Naruto did while he was in the academy. One would think that Iruka would have some experience in dealing with troublesome kids like Konohamaru because of having the resident prankster of Konoha as a former student, but no.

Just as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch hour, he almost fell on his back while sitting in his chair when a two people appeared so suddenly in front of him. After recollecting himself, his eyes widened when he recognized the two people.

The short one was easy because it was his rampant student, who had ditched class because he was too bored. The other one took a moment because Iruka had never seen Naruto look so….._cool._

Naruto smiled and greeted his former teacher, brother figure. It had been a very long time since he had talked to Iruka. "How's it going, Iruka-sensei?"

"Well, if it isn't Naruto!" Iruka was very pleasantly surprised to see his former, favorite student. It had really been a long time for both of them.

"Iruka-sensei, I'm just here to return Konohamaru in your care," Naruto gestured to his young shinobi in making, who was looking all kinds of depressed at being stuck in Iruka's boring lectures. Of course, sudden appearance of strangers was bound to attract the students' attention, who began to excitedly chatter. Naruto took note of this and gave and apologetic smile to Iruka. "We'll talk later, okay Iruka-sensei? I won't be disturbing your class any more than they already are."

With that, he vanished in a blue flash, leaving a dumbfounded Iruka to wonder that since when was Naruto capable of doing something like that.

Naruto appeared back at the head of his father. Suddenly, he didn't feel like doing anything at all. Deciding to rest for a while, he laid down, using his jacket to cover his face from the sunrays. Maybe, he would just laze around today. As he drifted off, he absently wondered if this is what Shikamaru felt every day.

XXXXXXX

Sakura was humming the tune of her favorite song as she walked into Sasuke's hospital room. She had been daily checking up on Kakashi and Sasuke. Of course, that is not to say that she was still a hard-core fangirl. She had ditched those ways long ago, thanks to her blonde teammate. She still pined after him, hoping that he would someday accept her love.

Over the course of the past few weeks, she had ample time to train and visit her sensei and teammate, though she missed the presence of Naruto. Team 7 had almost become a second family to her, and that family was incomplete, which left her feeling incomplete. She had gone to the Sandaime many times during the blonde's absence, to enquire when he would return. The old Hokage's answer had been the same every time, that Naruto was away on a very important mission for the village.

Every time, she had returned home unsatisfied with his answer. She continued her visits to Kakashi and Sasuke, hoping that at least one of them would wake up and talk back to her. On that note, she had noticed something strange between Naruto and Sasuke. Ever since the second phase of the chunin exams, Naruto had become a little more cautious when he was around Sasuke. It was understandable, given how Sasuke had viciously attacked him back in the forest, but Sasuke deserved the benefit of doubt, given the strange energy that had been coursing through him.

What Sakura hadn't realized that she had unintentionally used the cursed seal as an excuse for what went wrong for Sasuke. While the situation in the forest certainly put the blame on the curse mark correctly, she wouldn't realize until it would be too late that she would slowly, but steadily, start blaming every aspect of Sasuke's negative behavior on the curse mark.

She opened the door to Sasuke's room, she frowned when she saw two people that she didn't recognize. One was a white-haired man, rather tall and looked to be around fifty years old, leaning against the far wall of the room with his arms crossed, looking at the room's second strange occupant. She was a woman who looked to be in her late twenties, with her blonde hair in two pigtails over a green jacket with the kanji for 'gambler' written on it.

The woman was holding her hands near Sasuke's head, a green glow emanating from her hands which Sakura recognized to be medical chakra.

"Always mind your surroundings, Sakura," came a voice from her behind. She spun around, eyes widened on being startled like that. Naruto was leaning on the side of the door such that anyone opening the door would see him the last.

She put her hand on her chest, breathing heavily as she recovered from the shock. Earlier, she would have just punched him in the head for scaring her like that, but Naruto had made it pretty clear how he felt about that before their bell test.

"Don't scare me like that, Naruto," she said, her heartbeat now back to normal. Naruto shrugged and started eating an apple that he pulled out from….somewhere. "You should not drop your guard when entering a room," he advised while happily munching on the juicy apple.

Nevertheless, she smiled and said, "It is good to have you back, Naruto."

Naruto smirked and merely nodded in reply, his mouth full of apple. She then turned to the woman, but smiled wide when she saw that Sasuke was groggily waking up. She ran over to hug him, thoughts of other occupants in the room fleeing her mind.

Naruto shook his head in mild disappointment as he finished his apple. He didn't understand why Sakura pined after the Uchiha so much when he didn't even reciprocate her feelings. He tossed the remains of the apple into the dustbin and walked over to the bed. "Now that pretty boy here is awake, I'd like to introduce some people."

Sasuke glared at Naruto for his choice of words. To his credit, the blonde ignored him entirely. Sakura thankfully released him from the constricting hug and turned to him, confusion swimming in her green eyes.

Naruto waved towards Jiraiya, "He is Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Toad sage from Mt. Myoboku and- _don't you start it!"_

The last part was said harshly to the white haired man, who was about to start another one of his kabuki dances. "You ruined my introduction, Naruto!"

"No, you do that quite spectacularly yourself," Naruto muttered to himself before coughing into his fist, turning to Sakura. She had wide eyes as she looked upon one of the most powerful shinobi in the entire world. "It is an honor to meet you, Jiraiya-sama."

Jiraiya grinned at the respect he was given, not hearing Naruto's mutter, "Trust me, it's not." Naruto turned Sakura around with a hand on her shoulder, ignoring her protests of how she wanted to talk more to him. Naruto waved her protests away, "Don't worry. You'll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. Trust me on that."

Sakura frowned disapprovingly at Naruto. But before she could voice it, Naruto introduced her to the woman in the room. "This lady here, is Senju Tsunade, the slug Sannin and the one who woke Sasuke up from his coma."

Sakura instantly had stars in her eyes as she was introduced to the strongest kunoichi in the elemental nations and the idol of all kunoichis in Konoha. "T-Tsunade-sama," she hurriedly bowed, "It is such an honor to meet you!"

She did not raise her head after the bow in the name of respect, though she was confused when Tsunade-sama suddenly spoke to Naruto. "See that brat? That is how you respect someone like me!"

Naruto snorted derisively, "Whatever you say, _granny."_

Only because she was in a hospital did she not punch the brat through the walls. While this was going on, Jiraiya was restraining his sniggers, Sakura was berating Naruto for disrespecting a Sannin and Sasuke was blankly looking at the bickering between his teammate and the ridiculously busty woman, Seriously, look at the size of that! His hands would not even cover half-

"She is also our next Hokage," Naruto's voice broke Sasuke out of his rare, once in a while, perverted thoughts. Thankfully, no one had seen him gazing at the breasts of Senju Tsunade.

Sakura frowned as she looked at the enormous bust of the blonde woman with slight jealousy. Then she self-consciously looked at her own chest. Her chest was nothing compared to that bust, and she doubted it ever would be.

Then she backpaddled, "W-Wait! What do you mean, next Hokage?"

Naruto elaborated, "Sandaime-sama had sent me and ero-sennin here," he pointed to the indignant sage, "to retrieve her," he pointed at the annoyed blonde, "to become the next Hokage when he steps down. Also, I brought her back so she could heal Sasuke and Kakashi."

He turned to Sasuke, "You're welcome, by the way."

Sasuke glared at the slightly smirking blonde. He was acting way too cocky for his liking. He looked down at his hands, hating the weakness he was feeling right now. He clenched his fist as he thought about just how he ended up in this hospital.

Tsunade sighed and turned to Naruto. "I need to see you in the Hokage's office office the first thing tomorrow morning, Naruto."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Is it a new mission for me?"

Tsunade mentally smirked. _'Oh, it's a mission alright.' _Outward, she said, "You can think of it as a long term mission."

Naruto looked perplexed for a moment, then recovered, going back to his bored look. "I just recently became a jonin, you know? Wouldn't a long term mission be more suited for someone with a little more experience than me in the field?"

Tsunade waved his worries away as she walked to the door. "You wouldn't know how to handle a long term mission if you don't try it. Besides, this mission is especially for you. Only you can do it."

With those words, Tsunade left the room. Jiraiya coughed and walked towards the window. Perching on the windowsill, he turned and grinned at his apprentice. "Yosh, Naruto! I'll leave you with your team to catch up a bit! Got some peep, sorry, _research _to take care off!"

With that, he was gone.

Awkward silence reigned for a few moments, as neither one of them could figure out what to say. Sakura was the first to break the silence with a nervous chuckle, "So, Naruto, can you tell us about your recent mission?"

Sasuke's head snapped up, remembering a piece of the conversation when Tsunade was in the room. "You were gone with a Sannin, right?"

Naruto's bored expression betrayed nothing, but inside, he was curious. Why would Sasuke bring up that piece of the conversation?

"Yeah, actually. Though he is nothing like you can imagine, I assure you. In fact, both the Sannin are nothing like you are probably thinking," Naruto smirked in a lazy way.

Sakura was confused. "What do you mean?"

Naruto chuckled as he stood up to leave. "It's definitely not my place to say. You know how it is- whatever you learn on a S-rank mission is confidential information, reserved only for the Hokage."

No need to tell them that he knew that Jiraiya was a pervert long before they went on the mission. Also, he had noticed that Sasuke was showing signs of irritation that Sakura hadn't managed to notice. Twitching of his left eye, clenching of fist as if a dam was waiting to burst. He figured it was best if he and Sakura left. He had a feeling that whatever was going on in Sasuke's head, it was not good.

"Perhaps we should leave Sasuke to rest, Sakura," he said in a tone that was more of an order than a suggestion. Fortunately, there were very few bits and pieces of fangirl left in Sakura to rebel against him.

Sakura looked like she didn't want to leave her crush alone, but a look from Naruto made her decision. With one last look to Sasuke, who was looking down, seemingly lost in his thoughts, she walked out of the room. She looked behind her to see that Naruto had walked out behind her and closed the door. "It's best if we leave him to his thoughts for a while. He has a lot to think about his encounter with his brother," was the offered explanation, with a look that told her to keep quiet about this. Sakura's eyes widened, but Naruto ushered her away.

Naruto closed the door and locked it with a subtle _click. _He turned to look at Sasuke, who had looked up to lock eyes with him. The shadow clone he had sent out with Sakura would keep her away from the conversation they were about to have.

Naruto walked and closed the windows, pulling the curtains over. He pressed his hand to the wall, and seals erupted from it, spreading in a graceful pattern. After ensuring no one would eavesdrop on their conversation, he pulled a chair and sat down beside Sasuke's bed.

"….Thank you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. It was rare for the Uchiha to initiate a conversation, even rarer for him to say such words. "For what?"

"For sending her away. She was beginning to get on my nerves," came the blank reply, but Naruto picked up the slight traces of annoyance. Both of them remained quiet for a while, lost in their thoughts, until Naruto spoke.

"It was rather commendable of you not to lose yourself back there," Naruto said with a tone of acknowledgment.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Did you get dumber or what? If I hadn't, I wouldn't be here right now."

Naruto shook his head slightly, "I'm not talking about your actions. I'm talking about the hickey on your neck. It's power is quite addictive, usually activated in the situations that you faced a few weeks ago. Very impressive that you did not."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, not knowing how to reply to that. Silence descended upon them again, and this time, Sasuke broke it first.

"Back then," he began, causing Naruto to raise his head. "I discovered just how much distance is between me and my brother."

Naruto took careful note of the fact that Sasuke didn't sound angry, scornful at all. The tone was entirely blank, like he was simply stating a fact.

And that worried him.

The Sasuke Naruto knew would be burning with the desire for revenge in this situation. He would have done anything to get out of here, to bridge the gap between him and his brother by any means. Naruto knew Sasuke to be highly impulsive when it came to matters concerning his brother. Itachi was a name that rose the adrenaline levels in Sasuke faster than being in a fight.

He wasn't allowed anymore time to think because Sasuke's next question snapped him from his thoughts.

"Why was Itachi looking for you?"

Sasuke stared Naruto dead in his eyes. The kind of eyes that put Naruto on edge. Naruto carefully considered on how to answer. After all, this was Itachi they were talking about. "You will find your answer if you remember the conversation we had before I left for my mission, Sasuke."

"He's after the Kyuubi, then?"

Naruto was surprised on the inside at how quickly Sasuke was able to connect the dots, but the surprise did not appear on his bored façade. He just nodded silently in reply. "Not just the Kyuubi."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question, but Naruto shook his head, clearly implying that he would not talk anymore on the subject.

"….I'm starting to think this village can't help become as powerful as my brother."

It was a mere mumble, something only meant for Sasuke's ears alone. But coupled with the silence of the room and Naruto's animalistic hearing, it was not discreet at all.

For the first time in a long time, Naruto could honestly say he was truly shocked. He had just heard Sasuke contemplating on leaving the village, just to get more powerful, faster than what he was getting now. Sasuke was already a flight-risk, but that was now nearing an edge that Naruto couldn't afford to tip. He had to stop this now.

"Everyone becomes powerful in their own pace, Sasuke. If you continue to forcefully push beyond the absolute limit, it will only result in a burnout."

Naruto leant forward, and Sasuke froze when he looked into Naruto's eyes. They were frigid, freezing him in place, for he could not tear away his own. They reminded him of his brother's eyes, the same cold, detached, ruthless eyes.

"You think that this village should only cater to you and your needs?"

The question was clearly rhetorical, and was spoken barely above a whisper, but it was spoken with so much menace that Sasuke could not stop that shiver that violently passed through his body. Naruto, to Sasuke, had always been a laid back guy who owned the word "serious" when the situation called for it. But this was a totally new side of the blonde that he was seeing right now.

"Make no mistake, Sasuke. The moment you put on the headband, the Hokage became the only person whose orders you have to ultimately follow. You now belong to the leaf, before you belong to the clan. Every clan in Konoha obeys this rule, I don't see why you think you are an exception."

Naruto's posture was very relaxed. He was leaning back in his chair, left ankle over right knee, elbows on the armrest, chin resting on hands, mouth hidden and only eyes visible. Yet, there was something in the air around him that _screamed _of danger.

"You brother was a gem, Sasuke. A one-of-a-kind. People might hail you as a genius, but even genius has class. Your genius cannot be compared to your brother's. Itachi's level of genius is something that only occurs once in many generations. If you think you can progress at the same speed that your brother did, you are _dead wrong."_

Sasuke finally found his voice, and it quivered with rage. "Are you saying I will never be able to kill my brother?"

Naruto's answer was short and precise, conveying exactly what he needed and nothing more. "Just not now. Perhaps in a few years."

Sasuke's rage only grew at the nonchalance of the answer. He hated when he wasn't taken seriously. Naruto stood up and walked over to the wall, laying his palm flat on it and disabling the seals on them. He turned to Sasuke, who looked only an inch away from snarling.

"I would stop that train of thought if I were you, Sasuke. Abandoning the village would give you nothing but a kill-on-sight order," he advised, causing Sasuke's rage to subside moderately, the Uchiha staring back at his hands with a blank gaze.

Naruto turned back to Sasuke, causing the Uchiha to do a double take at the pleasant smile that adorned his face. It was as if he was back to his normal self, the previous second becoming a different person entirely.

"Well, Sasuke, get well soon!" Naruto wished and was about to open the door to exit. If someone asked when he went back into Sasuke's room, he would just say that he forgot something and came to take it back.

"Naruto!"

The call stopped his hand on the handle. Removing it, he turned around and gave a questioning look to his former teammate. "What would you do if I were to just run away?"

Naruto had to give credit to Sasuke to threaten his deserting so openly. Instead of answering the question, Naruto asked one of his own. "You formed bonds when we were teammates, Sasuke. Bonds that were similar to the family that you once had. Ask yourself this: would you be willing to lose bonds like those a second time?"

Based on the widening of his eyes, Sasuke was totally unprepared for the question. Naruto made him realize just what team 7 was to him now, making him doubt himself whether he could sever the bonds to just get revenge.

Both their eyes snapped to the door when there was a click of the handle, before the door started opening. Naruto whispered to Sasuke, _"Remember your friends, Sasuke."_

He was gone in a flash, the door swinging in the space where he was but a moment ago. A nurse appeared, looking concerned. "Are you alright, Sasuke-san? I heard voices from your room."

"…..I was just talking to myself. Nothing to worry about," he assured the nurse. The nurse nodded and left, keeping the door open this time.

Sasuke was still thinking about how Naruto had just outright threatened him. Not just that, but he had made it very clear that he was a very dangerous person; Sasuke hadn't even imagined or even dreamed that Naruto of all people had it in him to do it. Naruto made it clear that he would kill Sasuke if he had to to protect Konoha.

Sasuke glanced down in thought. He thought back to the conversation he had with Naruto before the blonde left for his mission. Naruto had bonds in this village, which he wanted to protect at all costs. Was that why he was so strong? Is that why he himself was not becoming as strong as he wanted to? Because he had nothing to protect?

'_You have your friends,' _a part of his mind whispered at him. Sasuke frowned when he couldn't make sense out of his thoughts. One part of his mind whispered to him sweetly, saying that this village was only holding him back. Orochimaru had given him a way to get stronger, so he should take it.

Another part of his mind said that he should remain in the village, grow stronger with his friends. He had already lost too many people, was he ready to lose more because of his desire for revenge? Or should he focus on revenge only?

He didn't know which path to choose.

XXXXXXX

Naruto came back from his daily morning run and made three clones to cook breakfast while he got refreshed for his meeting with the Hokage. After he was fully ready, he flashed right onto the roof of the Hokage tower, walking down rest of the way. He had been warned before not to directly flash into the Hokage's office, lest the ANBU mistake him for an enemy and kill him.

He knocked on the door of the office and waited for the permission to enter. Once he heard Tsunade's voice from inside, he opened the door to find Tsunade standing beside the old man, who was seated in his chair. _'Looks like she is on a trial period until her official coronation,' _he thought as he closed the door behind him.

Hiruzen and Tsunade straightened up a bit once they saw Naruto enter. He came to stand in front of them, expression bored but posture not as relaxed as to go hand in hand with his expression. He stood relaxed, but ready to act in an instant should any hostilities erupt. Tsunade felt quite bad for being one of the people to tell him that his love life was officially over before it even began. The kid didn't deserve it in her eyes.

Hiruzen felt much worse than Tsunade, for he had been the one to make the decision to marry Naruto away without telling him. There were a few instances when he truly hated his position as the Hokage, for the decisions he had to make almost crushed his conscience with their weight. This was one of them.

Naruto kicked off their conversation upon seeing the old folks weren't going to begin anytime soon. "So, what's the mission?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow before turning to Tsunade with a questioning look. "You told him it's a mission?"

Tsunade shrugged, "It can be considered a long term mission, can't it not?"

Hiruzen contemplated before shrugging himself. "Well, you're not wrong. Anyways!"

He turned to Naruto with a most serious look on his face, making Naruto straighten on reflex. "Naruto, first of all, I cannot express just how sorry I am to force you into this. I know there is no way I can ever earn back your trust and forgiveness after this."

Naruto frowned in concern as he heard those words. He had never saw the old man look older than he really was. Plus those words rang alarm bells in his mind. Jiji had obviously done something that affected him in a very bad way and heavily blamed himself. So he did the only thing he could- steel himself and listen to whatever bad news the old man had landed him in. Perhaps he could still find a way out.

"What have you done?"

The words came out with more accusatory feeling than he intended, but they got the point across. Tsunade and Hiruzen flinched at the tone, and Tsunade, very slowly, took out a scroll from the desk drawer and held it out towards him.

Naruto looked at the scroll with apprehension. Worst case scenario, they were kicking him out of the village for something he had apparently done. Then he would have to flee the village somehow and become a missing nin, who would then be on run from the Konoha hunter nin and Akatsuki.

No pressure.

He took it with calmness, without any show of fear, nervousness or anxiety. He opened the scroll and read it swiftly, his brain picking out the important sentences and points quickly.

His first reaction was blankness. His mind went completely blank when he discovered that the scroll was a document stating that he was getting married to Sabaku no Temari from Suna. He was getting married….at thirteen years of age. It was a surreal thought.

Then his mind shifted to anger. Deep, unadulterated anger at the fact that the old man had just given him away like that, without asking for permission! It was completely uncalled on his part, not to mention, illegal?! You can't just do that to clan head without asking for his permission! Clan business was serious business, so serious that even the Hokage only interfered when only absolutely necessary. Also, the old man had shot his chance at love with Temari like it was something he did every day. Was it not enough for him to have ruined his childhood?!

Then his mind caught up with his most recent thought. The old man had offered him in marriage to Sabaku no _Temari?! _The same Temari, who wielded a huge fan, impressive wind style, badass attitude and the _absolutely fabulous body, including those creamy, never ending long legs?! The same one?!_

After his brain finally caught up with the facts, the final reactionfollowed. Joy bubbled inside him like lava in a volcano, but he used all the mental strength that he had garnered over the years to cap that from showing on his face. Still, some memories escaped from his grasp, such as his first ever make-out session, causing a noticeable blush to spread over his cheeks.

He was getting married to the person he genuinely had feelings- that had only grown- for! Not just any girl!

Hiruzen and Tsunade frowned in concern at his silent reaction, but confusion replaced that when they saw a blush spread over his cheeks. Why was the boy blushing?

"Something the matter, Naruto?"

Tsunade's question made Naruto look up at them, scroll suddenly forgotten in his hands. He had the perfect look of a kid with his hand caught in a cookie jar. Eyes wide, cheeks reddening with a blush and mouth open. Tsunade had her eyes slightly narrowed as she spoke to the younger blonde. "Are you alright?"

Naruto, for the first time in a long time, was short of a response. He couldn't think of what to say, and felt extremely awkward. He coughed into his fist. "Ahem! Ye-Yes, I'm fine. It's just that, I never expected this to happen."

However, Tsunade's instincts to those sort of reactions were long honed over the years, thanks to having a teammate such as Jiraiya. She immediately knew that Naruto was hiding something, something big. He looked like he had past interactions with the daughter of the Kazekage. How does she know, you ask? Let's call it a woman's intuition.

With an authoritative tone that Hiruzen would honestly say sounded like a mother suspicious of her child, Tsunade asked, no, _commanded. _"I know you're hiding something, you ball of trouble, so spill."

Naruto sputtered indignantly, "I'm not a ball of trouble! Trouble knocks my door, not the other way around!"

Tsunade was now starting to get irritated. "Don't change the topic, mister! What are you hiding?"

Naruto looked at the irritated face of Tsunade, and the morbidly curious face of his surrogate grandfather, and pondered on what to say. The fact that they were watching him like hawks was not helping at all. His mind raced over excuses that popped into his head, each being discarded in an instant. Damn it, what happened to the training of looking innocent after a prank?!

Naruto mentally sighed and looked away, mumbling something too low for the other two to hear.

Tsunade cupped her ear. "What did you say?!"

"…..we've met."

Instantly, Tsunade knew that the answer was both true and false. True, because his defeated expression at her prodding was crystal clear, and false, because his blush said something else that he was not saying.

"Oh no no no no! You are not getting away like that! I knew you did something more! What is it?"

Naruto looked very surprised that she somehow knew he was hiding something, and wondered if all the women were like this, knowing that something was being consciously hidden from them. He absently wondered if he would ever be able to hide something from Temari when they would get married and start living together.

"We might have…." The rest was said in an incomprehensible mumble.

For all his age and years as a Hokage, Hiruzen was dumbfounded to see such a sudden change in one of his shinobi. Naruto just went from a completely confident ninja to a shy, embarrassed one. He wondered if Naruto really had something big to hide or was he just embarrassed at being married away at such a young age.

Tsunade's patience had just about reached its end. She walked up to Naruto and grabbed his collar, shaking him like a rag doll. "Will you man up and just say it?! Or do you enjoy keeping people in the suspense?! Tell us or I'll really punch you into the next week!"

"WE HAVE KISSED, OKAY!"

The answer caught both of them off guard. Tsunade, for one, was not expecting this at all. This was something that was so entirely out of the blue that she was shell shocked. Her grip on his collar loosened, and she stepped back, mouth open and eyes wide, unable to form a word. To hear that Naruto, the boy that she thought was as oblivious as his father used to be, had had a short-term, but romantic relationship with a girl, the same girl who her sensei had now given Naruto away to, was too much. She simply couldn't make sense of anything right now. The co-incidence was almost like an act of fate.

Hiruzen, on the other hand, was no better off. He had never, in his wildest thoughts, imagined that Naruto apparently had been in a relationship with the Kazekage's daughter. He then realized that Naruto could only have met Temari when the sand siblings came here for the chunin exams. He had always thought that Naruto was a serious child, dedicated to becoming stronger so that he could protect what was precious to him. He would have never thought Naruto might actually put time aside for some romance such as this. However, learning that Naruto already liked the selected bride, a great deal of weight was pulled off from his shoulders. He almost sank into his chair in relief like a melting ice cream.

Finally, Naruto looked suspiciously at the other two in the room. It was clear who was the one who actually came up with this idea, but was it really that hard to believe that he had been in a temporary- soon to be permanent- romantic relationship?

But then again, it was from the point of view of a third person. Maybe the reaction was to be expected. Right now though, he needed to get out of here.

"Can I leave?"

The question managed to snap the other two into attention. Before they could reply, Naruto had already flashed back to his apartment.

There was silence for a few moments, broken then by Tsunade's chuckles. Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at her, silently asking her why. Tsunade replied, "Who would have thought that the brat actually had a relationship with a girl? And you are marrying him off to the same girl?"

Hiruzen nodded, too relaxed right to speak. He was just glad that Naruto already had a relationship with the girl, so this won't be too tough on him.

XXXXXXX

'**Well, that was a surprise.'**

Naruto was sitting on the head of his father, looking over the village in the night. This was his favorite place to come whenever he wanted to think in silence. Right now, he had a shit eating grin on his face.

'_Damn right, it was. I hate to say this, but it was almost like an act of fate.'_

'**I guess we should just leave it at that. Neither you nor I are capable of truly knowing just how this happened.'**

Naruto shrugged. _'True. However, this is surreal that I'm getting married at such a young age, when I should be focused on getting stronger. But I'm glad that it happened with Temari.'_

'**We both are. Speaking of getting strong, you need to get back into training. I want you to master my first tail by the end of this week. You've had enough rest.'**

'_You got it, Kurama. Although, I wonder how Temari will be reacting to this piece of news?'_

'**I'm sure she's just as overwhelmed as you are, Naruto. Perhaps more so than you. I'm wondering how Gaara would react, though.'**

Naruto raised his eyebrows, whistling. _'Damn, you're right. Perhaps I should be worried about both of their reactions. Her brother though, he is a barrel of laughs.'_

A loud snort echoed through his mind. **'You're right about that. When you really look at it, he really is just a boy in his sister's make up, playing with dolls.'**

This time, Naruto was the one who snorted. _'How do you know he wore Temari's make-up?'_

'**Would any self-respecting male confess to having a make-up kit?'**

'…_..Fair point.'_

Naruto thought back to what he had read on the document, and automatically a grin curled up on his lips. The thought of marrying Temari, tasting those lips again, for the rest of his life….

Hiruzen was just wrapping up his work in his office. Tsunade was to be announced as the Hokage tomorrow, so it had been a very busy day for him, not to mention giving Naruto the…good news. He was about to shunshin to his clan compound when he heard it.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

It suspiciously sounded like a person he was used to seeing.

**AN: Wow, it has been two weeks since my last update, and I find that it is much less stressful than delivering an update every week. Sorry guys, but it looks like I will be sticking to it. **

**That said, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I read almost all Naruto and Temari marriage fanfics to get an idea on how to start this chapter. Sorry if the reactions were not up to what you were expecting, though. Even I felt I was a bit lacking.**

**P.S: **

**Arckane: If this is trash, why are you coming here to pick it up?**


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 23

**Author's Note: Wow….The replies from you guys were simply AMAZING! I had no idea the latest chapter would be so well received! I thank the people who reviewed. Any review that would come would just make my day. Moving on to the first order of business, this chapter would be more focused on building on the relationship between Naruto and Temari, as well as some foundation to the marriage. I'll try to add some fun and humor, but I scored quite low in those areas. But I'll try my best. **

**NOTE: I apologize in advance for the extreme bullshitting in the beginnings.**

A week passed after the "good news", without anything interesting happening, except Tsunade officially becoming Hokage. Naruto had put his week off to good use to train and after that, resumed started taking missions. In fact, he fully took advantage of the privileges that became available to him after his promotion to jonin. He was allowed to take missions of higher rank, and after taking a bit of advice from Kakashi, who had experience in the "young jonin" department, he started out with high C-rank to mid B-rank. So far, he had completed 5 missions, one each day, two high C-rank, two mid B-rank and one high B-rank.

The last one was actually supposed to be a mid B-rank, guarding a wealthy, wine merchant and his two friends in their journey from Konoha to the land of vegetables. Naruto was at first quite surprised that they made use of horse wagons. One was for the merchant and his friends, the other for their goods. The merchant was at first skeptical that there would only be one ninja to guard them, but Tsunade had convinced them that Naruto was more than qualified for this mission. Naruto sat on top of the second wagon in their journey. At halfway point, it seemed that this mission would be completed without any problem, and to Naruto's regret, any fight.

However, as the saying goes- Don't provoke the universe. It turned out, that when they were about to enter Na no kuni, they were ambushed by a ninja. More specifically, a missing nin. Omitsu Isshin was a high, B-rank missing nin from Kirigakure. Apparently, he had been hired to take out the merchant by a rival, or at least, that's what he said in his monologue when he was standing in front of the wagon. Poor guy never even saw Naruto coming, for the blonde's flash step was fast enough to catch Kakashi off guard, this guy stood no chance at all. He had just finished his monologue and moved to attack when-

SLASH!

\- his head was cleanly cut off from his body by Naruto using a kunai coated with wind chakra. Naruto had been ready to dispose of his body when he had paused, and took out his bingo book. He had smiled when he saw the missing nin's entry on a page for 120,000 ryo. Of course, his mission pay was relatively higher, and had been bumped up because of Isshin, but extra cash hurt no one.

The client had been incredibly relieved and pleased, with him and his friends repeatedly thanking Naruto for saving their lives. Naruto had told them about the change in mission parameters, and the cost following it. Fortunately, they had offered no resistance against paying more. They wanted to repay him in any way they could, so Naruto just collected the extra money in payment.

It had taken them a total of thirty-eight hours to reach their destination. After getting their signature that the mission was complete and wishing them good luck in their endeavors, Naruto double-timed it back to the village, making just one stop at a bounty station to collect Isshin's bounty. Unfortunately, he could not use Hiraishin because his sensing capabilities were not good enough to cover countries just yet.

On the bright side, he put his recent mastery of Kurama's fist tail to good use. After they had returned with Tsunade, Naruto used his week off to master Kurama's first tail. The blonde had, after a substantial amount of hard work, mastered the use of his body in the one-tailed mode. His already impressive strength, speed and reflexes were heightened greatly. It had taken him a mere five hours of journey to reach Konoha. After he had reported his success back to Tsunade and collected his money, he had went back to his house.

His parent's house.

That was another new development for him. After the day when he was told, he was called back into Tsunade's office, where she had advised him to move into his parent's house as soon as possible. After all, his apartment was hardly a place for him to live after his marriage. And knowing how Naruto tended to finish things rather quickly to avoid any backlog, she told him to move into the house the day after.

At first, Naruto was a little puzzled because he really couldn't understand the reason he had to move his things so quickly. But Tsunade explained it to him that he had to have the house ready and furnished by the time Temari arrived. And by ready, she meant it was to be ready for Naruto _and _Temari to live in, not just him. Being the naïve guy Naruto was, he didn't understand at what she was hinting. Naruto was a very simplistic guy, who really only had what he needed and nothing more.

Of course, then he was introduced to shopping, his nightmare for the next few days.

_**Day of the moving**_

Turns out, news like the kind of these had a way of spreading around the village very fast. Naruto had reluctantly agreed to Tsunade's suggestion of moving into his parent's house the very next day. Just as he was leaving the office after their discussion, Tsunade casually told him that they needed to do some work after he was done moving. The glint in her eyes when she said that actually managed to scare him.

He had the whole next week off, including two days extra of the week after, because of him doing back to back B-rank missions the whole week and not taking the required leave. Which meant, he had the whole week to get the house ready for Temari's arrival. The next day, at ten in the morning, he started packing after he had lazed around a little. With the help of his shadow clones, he finished packing everything within an hour.

All his ninja related supplies like shuriken, kunai, fuinjutsu scrolls, ninja wire went into one large sealing scroll, while his household supplies went into another large sealing scroll. When he had packed up, he looked around the apartment, feeling a small sense of sadness within him. A part of him didn't want to leave the small residence. This was actually the first thing that had really belonged to him, gifted to him by the old man. To leave it like this, even if it meant going to live in his parent's house, felt sad.

He would be sure to acquire a fair price for it when he sold it later.

He slung the scrolls and walked out of the apartment, closing the door. He took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and pressed it on the ground, right in front of the door, so that the seals faced the ground. Pushing a little bit of chakra into it, a glow lit up the entire corridor, lighting all the seals present on the walls. Seals that were carved by him as a security measure for those who came after him.

The piece of paper had the key to the sealing array in the corridor, to disable all the seals at once safely. Once the lights had receded, indicating all the seals were now gone, he crumpled up the paper and burnt it with a blazing palm.

He looked around the place one last time, before flashing away.

He arrived in the living room instantly. He put down the scrolls when one thing suddenly hit him. He had absolutely no idea what to do next. He was unsure if he should unpack or not, because the house already was furnished and maintained for almost fifteen years. He could unpack his shinobi supplies, but what of the household supplies?

He went to the only person who was capable of helping him. But first, a little insurance.

Tsunade looked at Naruto with mild amusement as he narrated his problem. She honestly found it a little cute and adorable that Naruto, who seemed to have a solution for every problem, would be unsure in the face of matters of preparing the house for his bride.

Then again, a man definitely can't do a woman's job.

"So will you help me?"

Naruto posed his question, standing in front of Tsunade. He knew that Tsunade was the only woman who could help him. She was the only one he trusted as well, aside from Shizune.

Tsunade smirked as she leaned back in her chair, hands folded at her stomach. "I could, but the Hokage's services come with a price, you know."

Naruto internally groaned, but was half expecting this. After all, Tsunade would be a fool to not take advantage of him asking for her help. He sighed and took out a storage scroll from his pouch and laid it on her table, unsealing it.

Tsunade's eyes widened as her eyes laid themselves on three very expensive, exotic bottles of sake. Her eyes shot to him in question, to which he shrugged. "Don't ask me, I found them in my basement."

Interestingly, he learned that his mother was quite a fan of exotic sake. He had a whole stash of his mother's sake in the basement. These three were only a little part of the whole that was very delicately preserved. His mother had damn fine sealing skills if she was able to preserve the whole stash like she did. The seals on the stash were personally made by her for storage purpose.

Tsunade picked up a bottle and turned it around, whistling at the label. "Well, your mother had good taste," she commented, then paused. She narrowed her eyes at him, "How do I know that these haven't gone bad?"

Naruto replied easily, "My mother created seals specifically for preserving them for a long time."

Tsunade knew just how good Kushina was with fuinjutsu. If she was the one who created seals to preserve these precious babies, then she had no doubt these hadn't gone bad. She then had a devious thought, perhaps she could haggle for a bit more.

"Still, just three bottles for the service you are asking from me?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "You very well know just how rare these are. In fact, I could have just said that I would owe you a favor, but that was too risky. I'm asking help for a bit of house decoration, mind you."

Tsunade immediately raised her hands in surrender position. "Just kidding, Naruto! I was just kidding!"

However, inside she was breathing a sigh of relief. Man, those eyes were unnerving.

"First things first, we need to get you access to your clan accounts," she said, standing up. "We're going to the bank."

What followed after was perhaps the most boring day in Naruto's short life. Tsunade had taken him to the bank, right after dumping the day's work on Shizune, and they had spent almost four hours going over statements, accounts etc. At the end of their work, both of them had been quite mentally exhausted, but had smiles on their faces.

Turns out if you are an important person and being accompanied by the Hokage, your work gets over rather quickly.

Naruto had finally been granted full access to his clan's accounts. And what accounts they were. The Namikaze account was by no means small, having a total of 300 million ryo. Naruto had first been baffled, for he had no idea just how his father had managed to acquire so much money. Namikaze had not been a clan before his father became the Hokage.

The Uzumaki account, on the other hand, had simply left him with his mouth hanging open. The simply ridiculous amount of money had almost sent him into shock. The amount won't be mentioned, but it was enough that he could live another life without working, that too lavishly.

Tsunade and Naruto were walking back to the Hokage tower, the former with an exhausted smile on her face and the latter still gazing at the shiny, new account cards in his hands with awe and wonder. Tsunade looked at her fellow blonde and smirked, "You still having trouble believing?"

Naruto nodded as he pocketed the cards. "The Uzumaki clan I can believe, but I had, and still don't have, any idea just how was my father able to acquire so much money alone."

"Minato was an extremely clever and resourceful person, Naruto. Just leave it at that."

The two walked in silence for a while, which was then broken by Naruto. He asked curiously, "So, I thought that we were going to do something about redecorating my house. Why did we go to the bank?"

To his surprise, Tsunade laughed heartily. "Oh Naruto! I sometimes forget that you are still a child and can't see the bigger picture sometimes."

That comment earned a scowl from him.

Tsunade completely ignored the scowl and smirked. "The real fun begins tomorrow. We'll start at nine in the morning!"

The feeling of doom Naruto had been feeling earlier returned with a vengeance.

_**Next day of the moving**_

Naruto had been sparring with five of his clones, completely on the defensive, in the massive ground behind his house. You might think that why would Naruto need to be on defensive against his own clones, but you would be wrong. Naruto was trying to avoid all their attacks, blindfolded. And he was only partially succeeding.

He was trying to use everything but his eyesight to avoid the attacks. He was trying to hone his instincts to the highest level, trying to increase the precision of his danger sense. He avoided a roundhouse kick from a clone by ducking underneath, moving his left hand in a smooth motion to redirect the punch to his chin another way. He would have continued, but the seals on the outer gate informed him that someone was standing outside his house.

He and his clones paused their fighting, dispelling themselves. He walked over to his towel and water, taking the bottle with him as he walked and wiping the sweat. He arrived at the gate and opened it, frowning in confusion when he saw Tsunade standing there.

With Sakura, Ino and Tenten.

He frowned in concern when he saw an expression of mirth on Sakura's face, followed by the absolutely savage smirk on Ino's and a friendly smile on Tenten's face.

"Have a nice morning, brat?"

Naruto immediately turned an annoyed face towards the busty kage. "Yeah, it was going so fruitful," he said with light sarcasm.

Tsunade, being a medic, immediately noticed the bruises forming on his arms. She curiously asked, "What were you doing?"

Naruto vaguely answered. "Training."

She stepped forward, "At least let me heal those bruises." Her hands lit up with green chakra, accelerating already fast healing process, thanks to Kurama.

Sakura stepped forward, and her tone mimicked her expression of betrayal. "So, Naruto, I heard something very interesting from Tsunade-sama."

Naruto's sarcastic mutter of "Did you now?" went unheard by the pink haired girl.

Ino was the next to pitch in. "Yeah, that you are going to get married to the princess of the sand."

Hearing Ino describe Temari like that made Naruto actually pause and think. Now that he thought about it, Temari _was _royalty, being the daughter of the Kazekage. This gave him the perfect comeback for Ino's comment.

"Well, a prince usually only marries a princess."

That earned him a half-hearted swat on the head by Tsunade, and giggles from Sakura and Tenten. Ino tried to scowl as well, but even she chuckled in the end. She should have expected this, with Naruto being the son of the Yondaime, she mused.

Naruto whispered to Tsunade so only she could hear. "Not that I mind you healing me, why are you doing it? It usually vanishes in under twenty minutes."

Tsunade muttered back, still concentrating on the fading bruises. "I'm not doing it out of kindness, gaki. I have need of you this day." She looked up with a slight grin. "We are going to abuse you the whole day."

She mentally laughed at Naruto's alarmed expression before stepping back. "You know," she began, "The village would know of your marriage anyway, so I decided that it best be on my terms."

Naruto pointed an accusing finger at her, "You told Ino, didn't you?"

The smirk of the female blondes gave him the answer. He shook his head, "Anyway, why have you called them here? I thought you were the one going to help me?"

Tsunade put an arm around his shoulders and started leading him back into the house, with the genin following behind her. "I did say that, but the work we are going to do today cannot be done by me alone, which is why I brought some help."

Naruto deadpanned at her, "Any particular reason your "help" consists of only girls?"

Tsunade nodded seriously, causing Naruto to double take. This seemed like a serious matter. "We are going to completely refurbish this house of yours. Don't worry," she assured the mildly panicking blonde, "We won't change the house completely. Just put some new things here and there, add a woman's touch- that's very important, among other things. Oh, and leave something for Temari to add if she wants to."

Naruto opened the door to the house, allowing the others to walk inside. He and Tsunade walked ahead of others, who were marveling at the inside of the house. Ino's eyes fell on the portrait of Naruto's parents and she gasped in awe.

"Naruto, is that your mother?"

Naruto turned around and saw the three genin looking at the portrait of his parents. He smiled slightly in pride, "Yeah. Isn't she beautiful?"

Sakura was the one who replied this time, gushing over. "She's gorgeous!"

Tsunade lightly shoved Naruto upstairs. "Get dressed fast! We have work to do today!"

As Naruto made his way upstairs, Tsunade walked and took a seat at the sofa. The three genin followed her example and sat down as well, with Tenten leaning forward in interest.u

"Tsunade-sama, did you know about Naruto's parents?"

To the genins' surprise, the medic nin snorted. "It surprises me how anyone didn't figure it out. I mean, he literally looks just like his father!"

She waved her hand, gesturing to the portrait. And it was true, as they had found out on the day of the finals. Naruto and his father could be clones, if Naruto was a little more grown up in height.

Before they could think more on this, Naruto came downstairs, in his jonin uniform. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

However, his confidence dimmed after looking at the glint in their eyes.

Oh, what torture it was.

Seven hours later, Naruto was looking around the inside of his house with a tiredness he had never felt before. He didn't have any energy left to do anything. As he tiredly collapsed on the sofa to get some of his energy to head to the bedroom and fall onto his bed, he recounted what he went through the day.

Tsunade and the girls had taken full advantage of his ability to mass produce shadow clones. Tsunade had taken him to get the latest kitchen accessories, while his clones had went with Ino, Sakura and Tenten to get new interior designs for the house. Tsunade also sent a clone of her own with them, just to make sure that whatever the girls selected didn't make the house too girly for Naruto's tastes.

Naruto had protested that his house already had kitchen accessories, but Tsunade insisted he take it, if only as a wedding present from her. He was reluctant to buy it, but he did. To his enormous shock and surprise, his account, the Uzumaki account barely had a dent in it after the purchases they had made, and not just for the kitchen. Tsunade had only laughed and said that Kushina didn't do anything in small amounts.

They had returned home to find the three girls, with a group of men working extensively on the interior design of the house. After seeing Naruto, he was bewildered to see his own clones giving him looks of pain, followed by pity and then, to the extreme annoyance of Naruto, dispelling.

_**Present**_

Boy, that day was a rollercoaster for Naruto, with merciless teasing from Kurama. The extensive work that had been going on in his house had also been charged to his Uzumaki account. Seeing the ridiculous amount of money it contained, Naruto had little to no problem in using it to give his house a new look.

He had been quite worried that Tsunade had given Ino and Sakura free reign over the designing of the house. However, Tsunade had assured him that she had picked Tenten just for the purpose so that Ino wouldn't completely make it look like that only a woman lived there. And judging from the arguments from Tenten and Ino he had heard, with Sakura acting as mediator, Naruto knew that Tsunade had hit the nail on the head when it came to Ino.

He had a freak out when he saw what plans Ino had for the house and and almost exploded when Tsunade clamed him down and told him the she would take over it from Ino, much to the girl's complains, which were silenced by a stern look from the Hokage.

Naruto watched as over the course of the next week, Tsunade completely transformed the house into something that was lavish and modern, but not too much that it lost the homely feeling that had been there before. Tsunade also made sure that Naruto added his own touches to the house, and left space for Temari, if she wanted to add something of her own.

All in all, the house was ready well in time. All that was left was for Temari to come.

Naruto finally snapped from the flashback and saw that he had arrived at his home. He flashed directly into his house, eager to do something to relax. He quickly took a shower and freshened up, wearing a t-shirt and a lower. He entered his father's study and sat down in the chair behind the beautiful, ornate desk. He traced his hand almost in remembrance, as if he could almost picture his father sitting on this desk, going over the ideas for fuinjutsu. He leaned back, folding his hands behind his head and looking up and the ceiling, trying to decide on what to do.

His father's study, which was his study now, had remained mostly untouched. Only the door that led into the room had been repainted. Otherwise, Naruto had strictly kept everyone from entering the room. He had redesigned the sealing array completely before a war named Ino was dropped on his home. The password was only one, consisting of three kanji characters. But he had chosen six that looked almost alike, with minor differences in strokes.

One time he had caught Ino attempting to open the study discreetly. She had thought she was alone, but apparently not. He had stopped her before she killed herself painfully, and very sternly reminded her to respect others' privacy, and keep away from the room. She had looked appropriately guilty, and promised not to investigate the door anymore.

He absently grabbed a paper and a brush, dipping it in an ink pot and doodling some ideas on it. He had been told by Tsunade that Temari would be arriving tomorrow, so he was understandably tense. A few weeks ago, they were on the opposite sides of a war. Now, they were about to get married. Things were going to be a bit awkward, and he was not looking forward to it.

He stood up, putting the brush away and crumpling the paper, burning it to ashes with a small fire. He was about to leave when something caught his eye on the shelf. More like, it was a book. A book he had never touched, for a reason he couldn't fathom.

He took it off the shelf, eyebrows furrowing in confusion when he sensed a genjutsu placed on it. With a quick pulse of chakra, he shattered it. However, instead of immediately dispelling, like fog clearing away, it shattered like a glass, with chips of chakra defusing into the air. Naruto watched with a small amount of awe. Genjutsu weren't meant to shatter like this. And why did this chakra feel so warm, so… much like his own?

He shook his head, making a quick note to investigate that later. He opened the book, reading the title. "Enhancements with Sealing?"

Naruto muttered, before flipping the pages and raising eyebrows with incredulousness at seeing countless mathematical calculations, scientific diagrams of the body, with numerous sealing equations. He whispered to himself, "What the hell is this?"

XXXXXXX

The next day found Naruto and Tsunade standing at the west gates of the village. Hiruzen was standing next to them as well. Naruto had to hand it to him- he was the oldest, living kage alive who was now enjoying retirement. Hiruzen said that he was now more of a call on advisor to Tsunade, if she ever needed help dealing with more difficult matters.

"We've been standing here for almost twenty minutes, Hokage-sama," Naruto said in boredom. "Are you sure we aren't early?"

Tsunade twitched beside him. Even she was starting to get a bit impatient. She was never the one for tardiness. "Maybe they ran into an obstacle on the way."

Hiruzen laughed at seeing the interaction between both the blondes. It was quite entertaining.

"Anyways, I have something I need to talk to you and ero-sennin about, Baa-chan."

The serious tone in his voice caused Tsunade to raise an eyebrow in surprise. What could be so serious that he needed her _and _Jiraiya's opinion on?

Even Hiruzen was curious, but Naruto gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry jiji, but I can't tell you, because I need their professional opinions as a medical specialist and Seal master."

Hiruzen nodded in realization. That would explain him being left out.

The three stood standing for ten more minutes when Naruto announced. "They're coming. Although for some reason, they are moving painfully slow."

Tsunade looked at him in confusion. "How the hell do you know?"

Naruto just gave her a look as if it was painfully obvious. "I'm a sensor. Didn't ero-sennin tell you?"

Tsunade grit her teeth. "I'm really gonna drill that pervert on the things he left out when telling me about you! Anyway, be very careful on how you speak with the Suna shinobi. You need to make a good first impression."

Naruto smirked as he stared at the road ahead. "I think I already made a first impression. Not sure if good or not."

On the other end, the entourage from sand was relieved as a whole when the gates of Konoha came into their view. As tradition said, the bride had to be escorted in a palanquin.

Temari was grumbling about her legs being cramped up from sitting for too long. She was not a delicate princess who needed to be pampered! She was a goddamn chunin of her village!

Her thoughts took a melancholic turn as she looked at her reflection in one of the inside mirrors. From tomorrow, she was no longer going to be a shinobi of Suna, but rather of Konoha. She had been proud of wearing her village's headband, but no more. She would have to wear another village's shinobi. Proud? That's yet to be seen.

"Temari."

The call startled her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to see Gaara poking his head inside, an unusual frown on his face. She sadly smiled at that- she was still getting used to Gaara showing concern for her.

"What is it, Gaara?"

"…..Are you alright?"

The question was so…._out, _coming from him, and yet, Temari found it adorably cute. She smiled slightly as she held her brother's hand. He did not flinch. "I will be, Gaara. Don't worry."

Gaara looked extremely unsure of what to say next. For someone who had minimum social contact, that was to be expected. However, his next words were so sure that it caught Temari off guard. "Naruto will take good care of you, Temari. He is the only one I trust to protect you."

It still astounded Temari and Kankuro just how high Gaara held Naruto. Then again, Naruto had single handedly turned Gaara's life around, so it was understandable, but putting so much trust in one person was simply mind blowing.

"Thank you, Gaara."

"Wow."

The quiet exclamation from Kankuro caught Temari's attention as she frowned. "What is it, Kankuro?"

"Both the former and current Hokage are here to greet us, along with your fiancé."

The entourage reached the gates finally. Temari got out of the palanquin and came face to face with a very busty, blonde woman, alongside the "God of Shinobi", and her fiancé. Her heart skipped a beat on seeing him give a small smile in her direction. But she steeled herself- time for talking with him would come later. She bowed to the woman.

"Hokage-sama, it is an honor to meet you, as well as Sandaime-sama."

Tsunade was formal in her reply as well. "It is a pleasure to formally meet you. I am Senju Tsunade, Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no sato."

Naruto eyed Temari appreciatively. She had changed her outfit to a long-sleeved purple blouse under a grey top, a dark blue skirt that reached her mid-thigh, showing off her legs, and a longer slash than the previous one. She carried her fan the same way as before as well, tucking it into her bow.

Before Naruto could greet Temari, all talking stopped suddenly when Gaara stepped forward, walking so was standing directly in front of Naruto. Naruto faced the redhead with a genuine smile, waiting for him to say whatever he wanted to say.

However, it became clear to Naruto when the silence stretched into awkwardness that Gaara was still learning on how to interpret social cues. So Naruto initiated the conversation. "How have you been, Gaara?"

"…I have been well, Uzumaki Naruto. However, I have a request to make of you."

Naruto didn't even need to read minds to know what request Gaara needed to make. He put his hand on the redhead's shoulders, ignoring the gasps from some of the Suna shinobi. "I promise that I will protect Temari with my life, Gaara. This is the promise of a lifetime."

That seemed to ease some tension from Gaara's shoulders. His next words were heartful. "Thank you, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto patted Gaara's shoulder once. "Friends call each other by first names, Gaara. Just Naruto will suffice."

Everyone was watching the interaction with different thoughts. The shinobi from Suna, except for Baki, seemed amazed that Naruto had talked to Gaara without showing an ounce of fear, and more, considered him a dear friend. Tsunade and Hiruzen were smiling, proud of Naruto's actions. They knew how tough a jinchuriki's life was, Gaara's more than Naruto's, but it was very mature of him to actively break the ice with Gaara when no one wanted to. Temari was giving a thankful smile to her would be husband, with Kankuro's being more hidden.

However, the puppet fighter didn't know why he automatically straightened up when Naruto glanced at him. He gulped when he saw the blonde approaching in his direction with a smirk on his face. He did not see Temari's amused expression when Naruto stood in front of him, staring down at him. Naruto was almost 5ft 5 inches, while Kankuro had was slow in the growing department and as such, stood at 4ft 11 inches, much to his shame. So Naruto practically towered over him.

Kankuro could feel sweat forming on his brow, but refused to break eye contact with the taller shinobi. Naruto then leaned forward so that his mouth was next to Kankuro's ears. "You better do something about your make up. It easily gives away your nervous sweat."

Kankuro's eyebrows shot up in surprise, He didn't expect this of all things to come out of his soon to be brother-in-law. He didn't even know what to say, but Naruto had already moved on.

Naruto stood in front of Temari, fighting the impulse to hug her right there and then. It would look very out of place, not to mention suspicious to those who didn't know of their earlier interactions. Instead, he greeted her warmly, "Welcome to Konoha, Temari."

Temari smiled and greeted back. "I accept your welcoming, Naruto-san."

Apparently, she was more aware of the protocols and way of conversations that were to be followed in this context. That was to be expected of the eldest daughter of the Kazekage though.

It was then Tsunade stepped back into the conversation. "Now that the greetings are over, please follow me. I will make your arrangements of staying in our village."

However, Naruto interjected. "Hokage-sama, if it's not too much trouble, I can take Temari and her siblings with me to my home. They can stay with me. I have more than enough room."

Tsunade gave it a moment of thought and then agreed. It would give Naruto and Temari time to talk out whatever issues they have, as well as catch up. Also, it would prove a good bonding time between Naruto and Temari's brothers. "Alright, you can take them with you. But report to me early tomorrow for Temari's initiation."

Naruto beamed in her direction and put each of his hands around Gaara and Temari, pulling them into his sides. He turned to face her and gave s charming smile, "By your leave, Hokage-sama."

He then flashed out of there, leaving a blinking and confused Kankuro in front of an equally confused Tsunade. A few moments later, Naruto flashed back, grabbed Kankuro by his shoulder and flashed away again. All the people left their blinked at the unusual happenings, not knowing what sense to make out of it.

Tsunade snapped out of her confusion when Hiruzen chuckled beside her at Naruto's antics. She turned to the rest of Suna shinobi, "The rest of you, follow me. I will show you your staying arrangements."

XXXXXXX

Naruto appeared with Gaara and Temari rights outside the gates that led into his home. Both of them blinked at the sudden travel, after which their minds caught up, followed by their bodies. Temari immediately turned and glared at a smirking Naruto, while Gaara deadpanned at him.

"A warning would have been nice, you know," she almost growled at him.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. It was the first time someone ever complained about instantaneous travel.

"Don't ever do that again," Gaara said in his deadpan.

Naruto rose an eyebrow in return. "You mean to say you don't like traveling from one place to another in an instant?"

The narrowing of eyes was the only answer that Gaara gave, but Naruto refrained from smirking in his silent victory at the argument. It was then Temari spoke up. "Wait, where's Kankuro?"

Naruto's eyes widened for a second, before he disappeared in a flash, returning instantly with the aforementioned person. The puppet fighter turned and indignantly pointed a finger at Naruto. "You forgot about me!"

Naruto shrugged, "My bad."

He then walked up to the gates and pressed his hand to let the seals recognize his chakra. The seals glowed and the gate opened up, giving everyone a view of the house inside.

Gaara was impassive as ever, but Kankuro was gaping in wonder at the house. Temari also gazed in awe at the residence, but hers was less than her idiotic brother. She had known that with Naruto being the head to two clans, wealth was never a problem for him. Naruto smirked at their reactions and gestured with his hands. "Shall we head inside?"

They all went inside the gates, and this time Temari couldn't conceal a gasp. The compound was even more beautiful, with a small square pond in front of the house. The house in question was quite big, easily big enough to be called a mansion. And the garden, with its healthy grass and flowers seemed to be well cared for.

Naruto led them all inside, further surprising Temari and Kankuro. Gaara maintained his impassive look, but even he admitted to be impressed on the inside. The living room was very spacious and while looked very lavish, it still gave off a homey feeling.

The kitchen also looked newly furbished, and was connected to the living room. Naruto walked into the center of the living room, right in front of the sofas and living room and clapped twice for attention.

"Alright, listen up!"

The three siblings turned to him, frowning in confusion. "First order of business, I'm telling you where you're gonna sleep."

He turned to Temari, who looked a bit anxious. His look softened and he said, "Temari, while we may know each other," he ignored Gaara's raised eyebrow and Kankuro's sputters, "I doubt you want us to sleep together. So we are going to be sleeping in separate rooms."

Kankuro interrupted him. "Wait, what about you and my sister-"

"So here are the facts," Naruto continued as if the guy hadn't even spoken, "There are a total of three bedrooms upstairs. The master bedroom, which is mine, is at the end of the corridor. There are two guest bedrooms, one of which will be Temari's." He turned to Gaara, "You two either could bunk together or-"

"Kankuro can have it. I don't sleep," Gaara stated.

Naruto frowned, but shrugged. "Have it your way then. Guess you are lucky, doll boy, you get to sleep in a bed instead of the couch."

Kankuro sputtered again as Naruto kept on talking. He turned to Gaara and said, "Remind me to fix your seal one of these days."

After everyone had been introduced to their rooms, Naruto called them down again and said, "Alright, now that the accommodations have been set, here's the thing. Either you can train in the grounds behind the house, or you can roam around Konoha with my clone as a guide to show you the hot spots."

Kankuro asked accusingly. "Why a clone?"

Naruto turned his face towards him with a raised eyebrow. "I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to spend the day with my fiancée. That is, if she is willing," he asked her, to which she gave a small nod and walked up to him, poking his chest.

"We need to have a talk."

"We don't mind, Naruto. We will take your clone as a guide," Gaara said before Kankuro really started to grill Naruto. The talk his sister wanted to have sounded important.

Just as he finished speaking, a clone popped up beside Naruto. "Have fun, you two."

With that, Naruto grabbed Temari and disappeared.

XXXXXXX

Naruto and Temari spent the rest of the day just roaming around, talking about just general things, getting to know each other better, or they went to a restaurant and had lunch, or trained.

The day passed very quickly for both of them, and soon they found themselves sitting on the head of Naruto's father, overlooking the village. Naruto was leaning against a spike of hair, with Temari leaning into his right side, head rested on shoulder, with Naruto's arm wrapped around her shoulder. She had her fan rested against another spike nearby. Both of them were enjoying the peace and quiet.

"I could get used to this," Temari murmured, shifting so she was closer then before.

Naruto was more than happy to let her. "Yeah, me too."

Silence reigned for a short while again, which was then broken by Naruto. "Temari…do you think this could work?"

Temari lifted her head from Naruto's shoulder to look him in the eyes. She knew exactly what he was talking about: whether this marriage could work or not. She sighed, Naruto always seemed to go straight to the point, without beating around the bush. Not that she had a problem with that.

"To be honest, even I had this question on my mind ever since I was told about this," she told him, watching him nod in return.

She began to blush as she spoke, "I know that I liked you, spending time in your company. I had developed these….._feelings, _for you that I had never felt before, towards anyone. I like you, but I am unsure whether these feelings are enough to…."

She couldn't exactly find the words to express how she truly felt. Naruto just nodded, "It's ok. I understand. Something like that is difficult to put into words. How about we talk this another way?"

Temari turned to him with a quizzical look. "What do you mean?"

Naruto tilted his head to he was directly facing Temari. She was very close to him, the physical contact they had at the moment would have made him blush anytime, but the conversation was serious. "You know, when I found out that we were supposed to be enemies… I just couldn't come to terms with that fact. My feelings were so strong for you that…. I almost couldn't make my mind up on what would I do if I were to face you in the war?"

Temari didn't say anything, just nodding him to continue. But her eyes were a bit blurrier than before.

Naruto forced any hesitance back. He needed to get this out of his system. "My feelings for you and duty to the village were in conflict. If I chose you, then my village would kill me. The village that was entrusted to me by my parents. Abandoning it meant spitting on what they did to protect me."

A single tear flowed from Temari's right eye. "W-What do you mean, "entrusted" to you?"

Naruto's reply was monotonous. "I'm the jinchuriki of the kyuubi."

That reply almost made Temari choke on her own spit. Naruto was the jinchuriki of the kyuubi?! How and when the hell did that happen?!

Then she remembered the conversations between her and Naruto before the invasion. Naruto had told her that the village had very few people that actually cared about him. No wonder Gaara held Naruto in such high regard, they could almost be brothers in suffering.

Then she remembered something. The Yondaime had seemingly "killed" the kyuubi years ago. But masses of chakra can't be killed, and Naruto just revealed that the kyuubi was living inside him, which meant…

"Oh kami," she breathed out. This was too much news to be dealt with at one time. To think the Yondaime sealed the kyuubi inside his own son? To protect the village, he sacrificed his own family?!

Tears were freely flowing out by now. Naruto was sugarcoating it when he said that he had been entrusted with the village. The Yondaime Hokage had sealed the fate of his own son by making him the kyuubi's jailor. It was frightening how many similarities were popping up between Gaara and Naruto. Their father had sealed Shukaku into Gaara, trying to make him into a weapon. Naruto's father had done the same, except he had done so with a hope that Naruto would use the power to protect the village.

"Why?"

The word was whispered, because Temari was openly crying by now. A look full of concern came across Naruto's face as he pulled Temari into his lap. He gently grabbed her face with his hands and brushed off her tears with his thumbs, speaking in a slightly pleading tone. "Please don't cry, hime. I don't like it when you cry."

Temari held Naruto's hands with her own. "What kind of father would condemn his own son to a life such as that?"

Naruto smiled slightly and put his forehead against hers. "The kind that loved his village with all his heart. The kind whose morals refused to let him use someone else's child if he couldn't use his own." He gave a soft kiss to Temari on her lips, feeling the unique taste that was so _her. _"The kind that trusted his son above everyone else."

Temari gave a watery smile and shook her head. "You are something else, Naruto."

Naruto chuckled and continued. "Anyways, we got off topic. As I was saying, if I chose you, then the village would kill me. If I chose you, I would never have been able to live with myself with the knowledge that Konoha could, or worse, did, kill you and there was something I could have done something about it and I didn't."

Temari's face was unreadable, and just as Naruto was starting to fear that he had spoken something wrong, she asked, "But you still chose me over the village. Why?"

Naruto frowned as he tried to find a way to phase his answer. "I felt this sort of….._connection, _for the lack of a better word, between us. We just seemed to sort of ….click. I felt like….. I won't ever be able to act like when I was with you with anyone else."

Temari looked at him, trying to find something he didn't know, and then slowly hugged him. It was a warm hug, and she was sitting sideways in his lap so not exactly perfect, but it still made him smile.

"Perhaps love does not need words to express itself," Temari murmured.

She pulled back from the hug and stared into Naruto's confused eyes. "Because love is a language in itself."

It was at this moment, that both of them knew that they cared for each other on a level that went deeper than what they thought. It was love, but neither of them were sure enough to admit it. Naruto nodded with a smile, "We can make this work."

Temari agreed wholeheartedly with a smile. "We can make this work."

Naruto had a thought and asked her, "So, what do we do now? Dinner time is still half an hour away."

Temari thought for a moment and asked, "Will we be eating out?"

Naruto shook his head. "I was thinking I would treat you all to some homemade food. Actually, that gives me an idea."

He formed a half ram seal and five clones popped up. He turned towards one clone, "Go to Gaara and Kankuro, tell them to meet me at the house in exactly one hour."

The clone nodded and vanished in a blue flash. Turning to the other four, he gave his orders, "You four start preparing the dinner at home."

The four clones nodded and vanished in a similar manner as the one before. Temari hummed, impressed. "Those shadow clones seem to be damn useful."

Naruto smirked, "Trust me, they make for great company as well."

Both of them chuckled at the thought of talking to yourself when getting bored. As their chuckles faded, Naruto asked, "So, what do we do now?"

Temari thought and smirked as she thought of the perfect way to spend. She smiled coyly as she leaned forward and planted kisses on Naruto's neck, causing his breath to hitch. "I can think of something."

Naruto was all too happy to indulge her.

**Warning: Small lime scene**

Naruto turned Temari so he could kiss her lips. Unlike last time, the two immediately engaged in a battle of their tongues without wasting any time. Temari wrapped her arms around his neck to pull herself closer, while he wrapped his arms around her waist to feel her against his body. _'Kami, I have missed this,' _was the sole thought running through both of their minds.

The two continued to tongue-wrestle for some time, after which Naruto broke off the lip-lock, only to start kissing her neck, all the while running his hands on Temari's sides and back. Temari released a gasp of pleasure and tilted her head to give him more access. She released a quiet moan when he began to suck on her pulse.

"You've gotten better at this," she managed to breath out.

"I aim to please," he returned easily.

She felt Naruto smile at her compliment as he switched sides. Not only that, since Temari was sitting so she was facing Naruto's left side, his left hand made its way down from her waist, past her hips and onto her legs. Temari's breath hitched again as Naruto began running his hand across the exposed skin of her legs.

"You know, I just _love _your new wardrobe change," he said in a husky voice. "Brings out your legs _way _better than the last one."

"Glad to know it was worth it," she said in the same tone of voice. Wow, the hormones really were getting out here.

Internally, she was growling, only because the same effect won't come in the husky voice. She felt that Naruto had switched from submissive to dominating way too quickly!

Well, time to turn the tables.

She grabbed his face with her hands and once again engaged him in a battle of tongues. Only this time, she came out as the victor as she explored every inch of his mouth with her tongue. What she didn't know, was that Naruto was only too happy to let her take control like that. It was then he found out a new thing about himself: he _loved _girls who had a dominating side to them. Of course, he preferred to be in control during this type of activity, he loved the way how Temari aggressively fought him for control. It really, _really _turned him on.

Such as now.

Temari felt something poking her right inner thigh. Her brain immediately told her what was poking, and she felt herself smirking against Naruto's lips. She broke off the kiss and smirked at him.

Naruto was surprised when Temari decided to break the lip-lock with him. But when he looked at her face, he had to call on almost all of his willpower to not immediately re-engage their lip-lock. Her entire face was flushed, lips a little swollen from their tongue dueling, and that smirk was _damn sexy._

When she spoke, her voice had a sultry tone that he had never heard from her, but he really liked it. "Is that your kunai, or are you just happy to see me?"

With a start Naruto realized that his erection was poking Temari in her thigh, through his clothes. Naruto always knew he was blessed, but times like he wished he had worn thicker clothing. But he refused to be embarrassed. It was his reputation at stake here!

Apparently, Naruto had been silent for longer than Temari liked. But she didn't get annoyed. Quite the opposite, really. She made a rather bold move, adjusting herself on his lap, her leg moving against his "kunai" in the process. She felt her ego swell a little at the groan that Naruto released. "Liked that, didn't you?"

Naruto stared at her with half lidded eyes. "You are _evil."_

He was not about to let this go without a comeback. He used his right hand to pull her face closer, quickly latching on to her earlobe. The gasp she released was well worth, but he wasn't done yet. His left hand roamed her left inner thigh, stopping and lightly squeezing the bare skin right below her panties. He didn't allow her subsequent moan to distract him, however. His right hand brushed across her left breast, his thumb ghosting across the now erect nipple. Her moan was much more audible this time, and Naruto allowed himself a smirk as he sucked on the earlobe.

He pulled back to see Temari's face, and felt his pride swell. Temari's chest was heaving, and it was a sight that further aroused him, but he kept himself in check for the moment. Half lidded eyes that contained frustration, mixed with pleasure and….pleading?

"Guess I did something right," he said as smiled satisfactorily. Temari was heaving as she glared at him. What Naruto did to her in the past few seconds was almost unbelievable, and felt _really good. _She never knew a foreign touch was capable of causing such pleasure. She had never been aroused on such a level as before.

**Lime scene over**

"You are a tease," she said as she leant against him. Naruto just chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. Though they had been a bit more daring than the last time, both decided that this was a good boundary for now.

"Learnt from the master," he sassed back. Both were completely aroused right now, but before they could decided on a further course of action, Naruto's clone flashed before them, causing Temari to yelp and clutch Naruto tighter.

Naruto only snorted and said, "If you are going to live with me, you better get used to that."

But Temari recovered quickly and poked him in the chest. "Oh, no way, Namikaze. Trust me, we are going to lay some ground rules concerning your "flashing.""

Naruto stared at her for a moment, then relented. "Fair enough." Turning to the clone, he asked, "Is dinner ready?"

The clone smirked and nodded, causing Naruto to whistle. "Damn, time sure does pass fast when you're having fun."

Temari got up so Naruto could get up. "Get Gaara and Kankuro to the dining table. We'll follow."

The clone nodded and flashed away. Naruto turned to Temari, who was watching him with a knowing smirk. "What?"

"That's a very impressive size for someone your age," she commented while gesturing below.

Naruto quirked an eyebrow before looking down, instantly flushing in embarrassment. His "package" was clearly visible through the lower he was wearing, proudly standing tall.

To save some of his dignity, he asked in return. "And you would know how?"

Temari shrugged, "They teach stuff like that to the kunoichi in Suna for the missions that are "special.""

Naruto nodded, "Fair enough. Guess I'll have to settle for a cold shower, then."

He grabbed Temari and disappeared in a blue flash.

XXXXXXX

Kumogakure no sato was a village that lived up to its name. The village hidden in clouds was at such high altitude that it literally was hidden among the clouds.

This village was the shinobi village of Kaminari no kuni, the land of lightning. It's leader was called the Raikage, literally meaning the "lightning shadow." The current Raikage was simply known as A, and right now, he was staring at the destroyed furniture in his office, thinking about the latest news his spy had delivered.

Uzumaki Naruto was the one and only son of Namikaze Minato. At first, A's interest was aroused by the fact alone that an Uzumaki had survived and was living in Konoha right now. Uzushiogakure no sato had been completely destroyed in the Second great war, with the combined efforts of Kumo and Iwa. Of course, a few scant survivors might have managed to escape, but it's not as if they can do anything.

Then came the third war, in which Kumo had lost badly, but not as badly as Iwa did. _Konoha no Kiroi Senko, _Namikaze Minato, had single-handedly secured Konoha's victory in the war. The man had earned the entire shinobi world's fear, and grudging respect of a few. In fact, Minato came to be so feared that while the man's short reign as the Yondaime Hokage, no village even dared to so much as look at Konoha with the intent of fighting it. The world was aware of what happened to Iwa's forces, and no one wanted the wrath of the Yellow flash to be directed at them.

But thirteen years ago, the legendary Flash had died fighting to save his village from the Kyuubi. Contrary to what many people in his village felt, A held great respect for Minato. He was the only one to completely out speed and blindside him in their single fight against each other in the war. A respected strength, and Minato had proven himself stronger, and way faster than him. A considered Minato his rival, and was understandable upset when the only person who could give him a run for his speed left the world.

But looking at the situation from a political angle, it meant that Konoha no longer had the might of the yellow flash in their hands. And Iwa had rejoiced at the death of that man.

But now he was hearing this.

A blonde boy, no older than thirteen, with azure blue eyes named Uzumaki Naruto. A genin of Konoha who had been participating in the chunin exams as a student of Hatake Kakashi, the copy ninja. He was a non-entity to his spy until the moment it was announced that Uzumaki Naruto was the son of the Yondaime Hokage. And he was powerful, more than most of the jonin, his spy was saying.

This Naruto had trumped a Hyuga in taijutsu like it was nothing, and had used fuinjutsu and hiraishin in great conjunction to take out Suna's jinchuriki.

All in all, Uzumaki Naruto spelled trouble for the nations.

The boy was clearly powerful, and coupled with the hiraishin could match some of the world's greatest shinobi. If he was allowed to get even more powerful, the balance of power among the nations could dangerously tip in Konoha's favor. But even knowing this, A could not afford to go to war with Konoha, even if his military was much larger than the other village's. Much as he hated to admit, if Kumo had quantity, then Konoha had quality.

He sat down in his chair and thought. Right now, the news was that Suna had decided to regain its alliance with the leaf by using the old tradition of an arranged marriage. Sabaku no Temari, the daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage, had been set to marry Uzumaki Naruto. No doubt, not only would the marriage cement their alliance, but the offspring of the two would no doubt be powerful.

But he had to take into account the leaf as well. For all its powerful shinobi, the leaf was not a provocative village. They never made the first move in any of the great wars.

For now, he would keep the boy in check. It was all he could do right now.

XXXXXXX

Iwagakure was a village that harbored feelings of great hate towards the hidden leaf. Ever since the third great war ended, the tsuchikage, Onoki, resented the leaf. Onoki was an old, but powerful shinobi. The only one in the world with **Jinton**, the Dust release.

Onoki relied on the dust release far more than he cared to admit. He was a shinobi who had seen all the three great wars, and had lived through them. But of the three, the third war was the one he hated the most because of the crushing, humiliating defeat they suffered at the hands of just one man from Konoha, Namikaze Minato.

The blow to Iwa's pride, along with its forces, was so large that Iwa had yet to fully recover from it. Onoki hated the man with all his being at first, but after two years of heavy dwelling, he found that Namikaze Minato had done what anyone would have done in his place.

Namikaze Minato had protected his home.

It was war, and losses were dealt to both the sides. While Iwa suffered the heaviest, all the villages were fighting to survive. Konoha just happened to have a card that was better than theirs. Holding onto grudges like that did no one good. Namikaze Minato deserved his rest after what he did to protect his village. So Onoki did the wise thing.

He let his irrational hatred go.

Of course, that could not be said for the whole village. Countless had lost their families due to the slaughter Namikaze had brought upon them. His own granddaughter was one such example. Kurotsuchi lost her mother in the war, and had blamed it all on Namikaze. Onoki honestly was worried for her mental health. Blaming a man who was just doing his job was hardly fair, after all.

And now there was this news.

His spy had delivered the news of utmost importance. Apparently, The yellow flash had a child, whose name was Uzumaki Naruto. At first, Onoki couldn't quite believe the message. When he did, he had just collapsed onto his chair in disbelief.

He had _seen _the power of Namikaze Minato, and he was not interested in seeing that again. At first, he would have happily given the order to assassinate the boy and his recently known fiancée, to make sure that every trace of Namikaze Minato was wiped out from the face of the world.

But now?

He was content to just keep his distance. He knew that Namikaze lived by a code- as long as you kept your distance and didn't harm his close ones, he was content to leave you alone as well. "I look forward to see what you become, Namikaze Naruto."

Unfortunately, he forgot to safely put the document.

**AN: This may seem like a cliffhanger, but I'm telling you right now: this cliffhanger won't be issued for quite some time, so please don't bother me about it.**

**I apologize yet again, if the whole "House refurbishing" thing sounds like complete bullshit, but I'm no interior designer. I wrote the first thing that came to my mind.**

**Someone requested that I put more Naruto/Temari moments. Whoever it is, I hope you appreciate the one I've put in this chapter. To those who think I'm going too far too fast, they're going to do coitus anyway on their wedding night, so I feel it's best if I start advancing their romancing.**

**See you after two weeks!**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 24

**AN: Hey guys, I'm back! And I really hate what I'm about to say, but there won't be any update this week, or the next. I have my exams on literally everyday next week, so I won't have almost any time to write. I really am sorry to everyone, especially those addicted fanfiction readers who are always impatient for updates (Like me). I really apologize guys, I really do.**

**But I will definitely post an update the week after, I promise. And it will be worth the wait. I will try my utmost to make it like that.**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 25

**AN: I'm back guys! Sorry for the long wait, and thank you so much to everyone who wished me luck on my exams! They went very well! Now, I won't keep you waiting anymore. That would be a crime. Let's go!**

It had been about four days since Temari came to Konoha, and those four days were some of the most enjoyable days of Naruto's life. He was off-duty, on strict orders by Tsunade. Naruto had no problem with, using his time to either train with the sand siblings, or work on his newest sealing project he found in his father's study.

Training with Temari was fun, because they hadn't trained together since chunin exams, and they both enjoyed every second of it. It was clear that Naruto held the upper hand in taijutsu due to his speed and reflexes. Temari had, on more than one occasion, suspiciously asked him _and _his friends, whether Naruto had a bloodline that allowed him to this fast at his age, because no other shinobi of his age was that fast.

They had spent more time together than before. They could be seen together training on one of the grounds sometimes, or just taking a walk around the village, or eating at Ichiraku's. Even though his marriage to Temari gave Naruto plenty of good reasons to spend more time with her, he unfortunately had become a victim of his friends' and worse, Jiraiya's teasing.

He had accomplished quite a bit in the four days that she and her brothers had been in Konoha. He had talked to Temari about how their relationship would progress, if they could make it work or not, followed by an extremely hot make out session.

And they had been having a lot of those recently. Most of them were either in the house when they were alone, or sometimes in the training grounds. They even had two of them in alleyways, just like any teenage couple with raging hormones. Kurama had made himself a cave in his mind to block it all out.

They had been steadily getting bolder with each other, and Naruto knew that it won't be long before the-

Naruto shook his head violently, trying to get rid of the blush that had been forming on his face. He was on an errand, quite a serious one, because he needed to talk to both Jiraiya and Tsunade about this, if his father's notes were anything to go by.

The journal was about something that Naruto would never have expected from his father. It was filled to the last page with sealing equations and math, all of which required a constant study from Naruto's clones over two days. In the end, it all came down to one thing:

Namikaze Minato had used fuinjutsu to successfully enhance the human body. Namely, his own.

Now if it were any other person, Naruto was pretty sure he would have set the book on fire with a katon jutsu, then shut the ashes in a box and then fried the box. But this was his father he was talking about here!

The Yondaime Hokage, the Yellow Flash, one of the greatest seal masters to ever live. One can't just throw away the work of a genius like that.

On the first day, the day after they came, he had fixed Gaara's seal with Jiraiya's help. To say that the seal was a shoddy piece of work was the greatest understatement ever. When he had examined the seal after removing the Gogyo Fuin he had put over it, there was no other way to say this.

Naruto had been fucking pissed.

So pissed off he was that he had destroyed almost half of a training ground in his rage. He wanted to find whoever made that…._insult _to fuinjutsu and raze them into the ground. He wanted to make them suffer, because they _deliberately _made Gaara suffer.

The seal was designed such that it barely kept Shukaku inside Gaara, which was most probably the reason for Gaara's insomnia. Shukaku had more control over Gaara than Gaara had control of him. The seal was meant to grant Gaara all of Shukaku's abilities from the very beginning itself, even if they didn't have any friendship like his and Kurama's between them at all.

It was a process of seven hours to fix the seal. First, Naruto and Jiraiya figured out the way to safely remove the seal without setting Shukaku free. Then Naruto had, using his father's and mother's notes about seals for jinchuriki, chosen a seal that would work on Gaara. He did not even think about using the eight trigrams seal once.

The seal Naruto had chosen to replace Gaara's seal was a bit more simpler. He had asked Gaara whether he still wanted access to Shukaku's powers, because that was what he had based his selection of seal on. After a little deliberation with his siblings, Gaara had told him that he did not want any more access to that power, if it always meant losing his mind and sanity in the process. And Naruto doubted Shukaku was willing to get along with humans.

But if Gaara were to ever run out of his chakra, he would have no back up to fall back on, as is the perk for all the jinchuriki. So in the end, Naruto tweaked the seal a little, placing a limit and an additional gate on it, without compromising the rest of the seal. The gate would allow a certain amount of bijuu chakra to flow through the seal, the amount being determined by the limiter. After the limit has been reached, the limiter would shut the gate. Like that, Gaara would have a back supply to fall back on, without ever needing to interact with Shukaku.

The actual, practical part of the process only took one hour. First, Jiraiya would remove the seal, with Naruto using a weak, but temporary seal to hold Shukaku from escaping, while Jiraiya applied the new, improved seal. Since the seal was temporary and therefore, very weak, it required an enormous amount of chakra to be held in place against a tailed beast. The job was given to Naruto because he possessed those monstrous reserves of chakra.

But even for someone like Naruto, whose chakra reserves were like an ocean among ponds, the job was hard. When Jiraiya had finally finished applying the seal, Naruto had almost run out of chakra, which was a first for him.

He had fallen unconscious just as the new seal had activated.

When he had woken up, he had found himself, not for the first time, in a room in the hospital. Tsunade had proceeded to yell at him for making her worry like that, and then she almost broke him bones by hugging him to death.

She then proceeded to tell him that he had been unconscious for a good five hours, because he had nearly emptied his chakra tank. After getting released, he had then went back to his house with Temari, who had been in tears, though of joy or worry, Naruto hadn't been able to tell.

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto had just flashed back to his home's living room when he was tackled by a blonde blur, straight into the couch. It took him one second to realize that the sobbing person hugging him was his soon to be wife. He just sighed in relaxation and wrapped his arms around her, returning her hug._

_Temari hadn't stopped worrying about Naruto from the moment he had fallen unconscious. She had so badly wanted to rush to him, but Shizune-san held her back forcibly, telling her that Tsunade-sama wanted to make sure that Naruto was alright. Although, she assured Temari that Naruto had probably fallen unconscious due to chakra exhaustion. Even if that did little to assure her._

_She failed to mention the extreme part._

_For Temari, it felt like every second was as long as a minute, for Naruto showed no signs of waking up at all. Tsunade had ordered her to go back home after her fourth hour of staying in the room. She had assured her that she would be the first person Tsunade would send Naruto after she had discharged him._

"_You had me completely worried, baka," she whispered as she clung to him._

_Naruto placed a soft kiss on her hair. "Removing a seal is tricky business, Temari. Holding a bijuu back from escaping even more so. I told you that before we began the procedure, you know."_

"_But you never told me you would almost empty your chakra reserves!"_

_Naruto chuckled as he adjusted her on his lap so she was facing him more comfortably. Her eyes were red from crying, and tear tracks had formed on her cheeks. A lone tear made its way down, only to be kissed away by him. _

"_Well, I __**was**__ holding a bijuu back, so my chakra reserves had to take a hit."_

_Temari smiled and just leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You don't get to worry me like that, Naruto."_

_Naruto wrapped his own arms around her. "I know, and I'm really sorry, but this is one of the times when it just can't be helped. Sometime in the future, something might happen to you, and I would lose my head and give you the same lecture you are giving me now."_

_After a moment of pause, he continued in a more positive tone. "Look on the bright side though. Gaara will be able to sleep to his heart's content now. I look forward to not seeing him look like an actual raccoon."_

_Temari couldn't help the chuckle. "You're right. He will finally be able to sleep after __**years **__of insomnia."_

_Naruto smiled, just nodding in reply. They just enjoyed each other's company for the moment. Gaara was under observation for now, to check if the seal holds, with Kankuro with him. There was a very slim chance of the seal breaking, though. Naruto had made sure of that._

_Apparently, Temari also realized the absence of her brothers, for she leaned away from him, giving him a coy look. "I think I haven't thanked you properly enough, Naruto, for doing such a favor to Gaara."_

_He shivered as she leaned in and started placing kisses along his neck. His own hands roamed her body as he allowed her to do that. He enjoyed the moments where he allowed Temari to be the dominant one._

"_How about we just….pass the time for now?"_

_**Flashback end**_

The make out session that had followed was the most intense one they had had, and the first one in which they had reached the height of pleasure. Well, the height they could without having sex, that is. The excitement and the thrill had broke the roof that evening.

Naruto's lower had gotten really messy, along with Temari's panties.

Anyways, the day was over, with Naruto and Temari having dinner together, for Gaara was to stay at the hospital for at least one more day.

The second day is a bit of a mystery, for both you readers and Temari. Naruto had left the house very early, leaving his clones to prepare breakfast for the siblings and with a message that there was something very important that Naruto had to do and as such, he would be busy the whole day.

Temari had been quite upset about that, because she enjoyed the training sessions she and Naruto had. Every session she learned something new, either about shinobi skills, or just about Naruto himself. She had asked the clones just what was Naruto doing, but the clones said that they had been instructed to keep it a secret from her.

Temari had not been pleased, but relented. She had then gone out to find Naruto's friends, to spend some time to get to know them. The first person she had met was the pink head, Sakura. She had first spotted her on one of the training grounds.

Sakura had offered to show her around if she liked, to introduce her to Naruto's friends. Temari had accepted the offer and tagged along.

…Let's just say that it was a very long day and leave it at that.

Naruto on the other hand, had gone to conduct some extremely personal business. He figured that since he was about to get married, might as well follow the tradition.

The third day, he had introduced Temari to his summons. She had already been familiar to Raiden, but he let her get to know him a bit more. She would be seeing a lot of him, after all. Finding out that Raiden now had a new tail was a surprise, though.

He introduced to her to Raiden's brother as well. Toshi, Raiden's elder brother, who was a part of the trackers of the Kitsune. As a tracker, his size and power would be restricted to three tails, for he was not a fighter, unlike Raiden, who would grow up to be as big as his father.

Toshi had a quiet, serious personality, with a light sense of humor that shone through when he was not training or on a mission. However, he was extremely good at what he did. At first, Naruto had doubted he could form a friendship with Toshi like he had did with Raiden. But that doubt had been quickly washed away when they had bonded.

Toshi was a pretty cool guy in the short time that Naruto had known him. And he had a lot of stories to tell about his job as one of the trackers, and as the brother of Raiden. Him and Temari had not bonded as fast as he and Naruto did, but that was understandable considering Temari already had a summons.

The fourth day, that was today, Naruto had an important errand to run. He had discussed with Temari, the rules that concerned his study. Right now, he had not given her the password, because the mechanism behind it was a little tricky and took time to explain, but he would once he was done with the errand.

He arrived outside Tsunade's office, knocking the door thrice. Once he heard her permission to enter, he opened the door, finding her and Jiraiya talking, well, more like bickering.

Tsunade looked annoyed by the fact that Jiraiya kept using one of her windows to enter, while Jiraiya honestly looked insulted at the thought of using doors. But Naruto knew that no matter what happened to Jiraiya, he would never stop using windows to enter rooms.

He liked annoying people that way.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya exclaimed, briskly walking over to him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders, almost dragging him in front of Tsunade's table. "Tell her how insulting it is to use doors when you are a ninja!"

"No, I will not," Naruto sighed in exasperation. "Better you than me at the end of her fist."

Tsunade smirked while Jiraiya gasped, looking betrayed. "How could you, Naruto?!"

"Can we please just get to business? I'd rather finish this as quickly as possible and spend the rest of the day with Temari instead of some old people."

As he expected, Tsunade was the only one who took any offence to the "old" comment. Jiraiya on the other hand, seemed to have not heard it at all. Instead, he focused his attention on the other part of the statement. His mouth stretched into a perverted line. "Oh? Spend the day with her, _how?"_

A fist crashed on top of his head, courtesy of the female blonde in the room. "That is none of your business!"

Naruto gave a thankful nod to her as Jiraiya grumbled and fell in line with him, both standing in front of the Hokage table. Tsunade took her seat while he and Jiraiya stood. "So, Naruto, what is it that you want to discuss so badly?"

In answer, Naruto just took out a storage scroll from one of the pockets in his jonin vests and unsealed the contents, which was his father's journal.

The effect was instantaneous. Both the faces of the adults hardened into seriousness and quick as a flash, Tsunade flashed through hand seals that sealed the room completely. All the ANBU were outside and Jiraiya was beside him in an instant.

"Where did you get that?"

The question was asked with such gruffness that it surprised Naruto. The man had never seemed more serious than before. It seemed, however, that these two had knowledge of what was written in the journal. Tsunade also seemed equally, if not more, serious than Jiraiya.

Naruto put the journal on the desk and answered, "I found it in my study."

Tsunade quirked an eyebrow, "Your study?"

Naruto deadpanned at her, "It was my father's, but since he's not here, it is now mine. But that's not relevant."

He motioned to the journal, "What do you know about that?"

He quickly got annoyed, though, when he saw the hesitation on their faces, as clear as water. He narrowed his eyes, folding his arms across his chest, "I'm _waiting."_

"….it was Minato's pet project, ever since he got the idea in his head that the human body could be enhanced, without any drawback."

Jiraiya's answer only increased Naruto's curiosity and irritation. "I already know that," he snapped. "You don't think I've read the journal and studied it? Ever since the delegate from Suna has arrived, I have had my clones do the studying for me, to understand one of my father's masterpieces. What I want to know, is whether he actually performed it on himself or not?"

"…..He did."

Naruto released a breath, giving them a look to continue. Tsunade continued, "Jiraiya told me that it was only a stray idea that popped into Minato's head one day. He wanted to know if seals were capable of pushing the human body beyond the peak of its highest potential."

"He wanted to create a super soldier," Naruto whispered in amazement.

Jiraiya nodded, "That's exactly what he wanted to do, but I had firmly told him that it was not possible, no matter how versatile fuinjutsu is, the seals required for what he wanted to achieve simply didn't exist. Not mention, even if he succeeded in creating such seals, hypothetically, what would he test them upon?"

He shook his head. "It was an impossible task. To create an entirely new series of seals that would work together to enhance the human body beyond its limits. But again, your father treated the word like he had never heard of it." A fond, yet impossibly proud at the same time look, came upon his face. "It took him four years of work on the seals, along with Kushina, to perfect it."

"Not only that, but he created an entirely new type of clone to test the seals out and perfect the seals."

"The blood clone," Naruto whispered.

Tsunade took off from where Jiraiya left. "Exactly. The type of clone that is entirely separate from the user, having no connection to it at all, other than being made from the user's blood and one aspect of the user's personality. When he made it, Minato had no uses for it in mind, other than using it for his tests. It was entirely useless, and too impractical. It took up way too much of the user's chakra, almost half a quarter more than the shadow clone."

Jiraiya took over from there. "But in the end, it worked very well for his trials. In the end, Minato had conducted a total of ninety-eight trials, eighty-six of which were failures, back to back. But the last twelve…"

"They were the successes Minato was desperately hoping for. After the twelfth success, Minato finally imprinted the seals on himself."

"As much as I like the tale, how were you involved in this process?"

Naruto's sarcasm wasn't missed. A guilty look came across Jiraiya's face, Tsunade sighed and looked down. "I wasn't exactly involved," Jiraiya admitted. "More like I told him that it just wasn't possible. Tsunade, on the other hand, was the medical advisor on the project."

"Since Minato was creating an entirely new set of seals, he asked me to be the advisor for this project. My knowledge of the human body and medical seals was required for him to calculate how exactly to enhance a specific part of the body and by how much," Tsunade revealed.

"And he was successful in the end," Naruto concluded.

Jiraiya nodded. "We were there, of course, when he decided to apply the seals onto himself, to intervene in any sort of an emergency. But it wasn't needed. Minato was in pain for over an hour, but when it was finally over, he had succeeded.

"He had enhanced his own body perfectly. There was a reason that only four people were involved in this project. He even kept the Hokage in the dark about this, as daring as it was," Tsunade revealed.

"Why?"

Jiraiya's face turned grim. "There was no way we could risk this project to fall into someone else's hands."

"Orochimaru," Naruto realized.

Tsunade nodded. "The rumors surrounding him at that time made us very suspicious of him. If he even got the wind of what Minato had achieved, he would have done anything to get his hands on the formulae."

Naruto nodded and slowly walked around the office, trying to think about what he should do. Jiraiya did not need to be a Yamanaka to know what was going on in Naruto's mind. "You want to perform the procedure as well, don't you?"

But Naruto wasn't listening to him anymore. _'What do you think, Kurama?'_

'**That you father was one smart son of a bitch,' **Kurama drawled back.

Naruto gave an internal annoying sigh. _'Not that I'm against you praising my father, I am talking about another matter.'_

'**I'm not praising that blonde vermin!' **Kurama snarled inside his mind.

Then, in a much calmer voice, he continued. **'Also, it would give you quite an advantage for you, should you undergo the procedure. I have seen it from inside your mother, and I know what the results would be.'**

Naruto rose an eyebrow. _'I sense a 'but' coming.'_

Kurama nodded. **'I think that you should wait for one or two years before undergoing the procedure. It would be wise if you underwent it at the same age your father did. Best not to take any chances.'**

Naruto was excited, as any child of his age, when he heard that he could get stronger in a way that would be cool, but he rarely let excitement make his decisions for him. Disappointed, yet accepting of Kurama's advice, he nodded. Turning back, he saw the concerned look over the adult's faces. "What?"

Tsunade spoke up. "You alright?"

Naruto waved away her concern. "Nothing. I was just talking to the Kyuubi."

Tsunade's eyes bugged out in horror. "What?!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Ero-sennin didn't tell youthat?"

Tsunade's face twisted into one of rage and annoyance as she turned to the white haired sage, who was trembling in his place. He weakly defended himself, "I-I forgot…"

Tsunade cracked her knuckles as she walked forward menacingly. "I'll give you a dose of medicine that will strengthen your memory."

What followed next, was history repeating itself. Naruto just shrugged and took his leave.

He had another errand to do anyways.

XXXXXXX

Temari was sitting in the dining area of her soon to be home, sipping some tea she had made for herself. As she relished the hot, steaming beverage soothing her throat, she thought back to the last few days she spent with Naruto.

He was very affectionate to her, she had observed. He was very gentle when talking to her, but too much as to treat her like she was precious glass. He respected her a kunoichi in her own right, and wasn't afraid to beat her into the ground to get a point across when they trained together. He genuinely seemed to love her, if the small, but sweet gestures by him were anything to go by.

She greatly enjoyed the times when they were intimate. The hot, steamy make out sessions with him that got bolder every time were something she would always enjoy, but the occasional hug, snuggle and cuddle with him was she would never get bored of. Such sweet gestures made her love him even more.

The love between them was growing stronger steadily.

She didn't even need to say how accomplished he was as a shinobi at such a young age, however, it was how he normally acted that surprised her.

Naruto was generally a very calm person, and very observant. He was not a foolish idealist, but rather his ideals were approached with a realistic and a pragmatic approach. This was something he told her himself. He did not disapprove of having ideals to live by and accomplish, but he seemed to genuinely loath those people who blindly tried to achieve those ideals without taking the reality into account.

Naruto had told her, in a joking way, that people seemed to think he was a very patient person. And it was true, mostly on the outside though. Rarely did anyone of his friends say that they had seen Naruto get angry, but Naruto had quietly told her the truth one time when they were cuddling in the living room. He preferred not to show his rage on the outside, but keep it within him and channel it in an effective way. Naruto hated when he was not in control of things, but that did not go to say that he was a control freak. He was more than happy to let others control things for him when he deemed himself incapable to do so.

Before she could dwell on her thoughts more, she jumped a bit when the door to the gardens outside was opened, a figure stepping inside. She had almost thrown a kunai at the figure when she recognized the blonde hair of Naruto. She relaxed and let out the breath she was holding.

"At least knock before you enter, will you?" She muttered.

Naruto smiled sheepishly and raised his hands. "I just wanted to see how you would react."

Temari snorted, "I almost threw a kunai at your head."

Naruto nodded approvingly and walked around the sofa to sit with her. He wrapped an arm around her, gently pulling her into his side. "I had something to talk about with our Hokage."

Temari rested her head on his shoulder. They rested like that for a while, after which Temari muttered, "Today has been a slow day."

Naruto's hand, that was rubbing her side absently, not that she minded, stopped. "Slow as in, boring?"

Temari nodded in reply. She had been bored out of her mind. She would have trained, or explored the village, but for some reason, she was feeling quite lazy today.

"You want to go on a date?"

Her brow furrowed as she tilted her head to gaze into his azures. His eyes were twinkling with mischief, which caused her to put up her guard. From what she had seen, Naruto was not a person to pull many pranks, but she did not know that he was the resident prankster of the village.

She raised an eyebrow questioningly. "A date?"

Naruto nodded excitedly. "Yeah!"

She thought about it a bit. It had been a while since they had been on one of those, in the past two days. "Sure, why not?"

Naruto grinned like the cat who got the canary. "Great! Be ready at eight in the evening! Wear something nice and casual!"

With that, he suddenly got up from the couch, whistling a random tune. Temari chuckled and shook her head fondly at his amusing antics.

Naruto was sure a peculiar person.

XXXXXXX

It was fifteen minutes to eight when Temari finished getting ready. She had taken a hot shower at eight-twenty, and then got ready. She did not usually apply makeup, but since this was a date with Naruto and not a meal after one of their training sessions, she applied a little bit of it. She had a feeling this would be special.

She had put on a sleeveless, loose white blouse with straps over her shoulders, and a blue jeans that hugged her legs nicely. She had only put on some powder and lipstick, mainly because she had no idea how to properly put it on as she never cared much for it. She exited her room and went down the stairs, into the living room and saw Naruto.

This was the first time she had seen him in a casual look and she had to say, he looked exceptionally handsome in the look. He wore a peach t-shirt inside a brown, full sleeves shirt with buttons open, and the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He wore khaki pants underneath, finishing with a different pair of sport shoes than she usually saw him. He also wore a blank, black headband instead of his hitai-ate, into his usual hairstyle.

Needless to say, Temari loved the look.

Naruto on the other hand, was blown away by how exceptionally beautiful Temari looked for their date. She always looked beautiful to him, but today it looked more special than it usually did. Even her hair was tied into two ponytails, contrary to her usual four.

He smiled as she came close to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, him automatically wrapping his around her waist, pushing them close. She smiled like an angel, "So, where are you taking me tonight?"

Naruto smiled as he stole a quick kiss from her. "Your look alone makes me want to ravish you here and now, forget about the wedding," he said as he planted light kisses on her neck.

Temari blushed, making her face go dark red. The blush looked darker than usual because of her makeup. But she couldn't resist the moan when Naruto began planting kisses on her neck. She pulled him closer and tilted her neck to give him more access. Much to her silent protests, he pulled away.

"As much as I would like to do that," he said with a protesting face, "we have an appointment in ten minutes. Shall we?"

She smiled and hooked her arm with his, both of them going out of the house. It was somewhat nice, Naruto mused, to walk to places sometimes instead of just teleporting. It made you notice certain things that were not possible to be noticed in flashing. Like how the people wore smiles and not so subtly pointed at them and whispering. Like how a little girl would blush when he looked at her and hid her face behind her mother's legs, peeking out to look at them.

He chuckled in amusement, drawing Temari's attention. "What is it?"

Naruto shook his head. "Just a little girl blushing at the sight of us."

Temari gave a meaningful look to him. "At the sight of you, you mean," she said in a teasing voice.

Naruto smoothly shot back at her. "I never said that. It could also be at the sight of you."

"Then why didn't you say that earlier?"

Naruto had no reply to that question, why made Temari giggle. It was rare for Naruto to not have a comeback, and she relished the few times she had been able to achieve that.

After five minutes of walking, they arrived at a fancy looking restaurant. Fancy as in the kind where most of the people could come and eat, not the one that was only attended by the most snobbish people, which turned out to be, most of the times, the rich ones. Temari could see a lot of people in the restaurant, which was fairly big.

Naruto and her walked up to the receptionist, the former addressing him. "I have an eight fifteen reservation."

The receptionist frowned and looked up. "Namikaze Naruto?"

"Yes."

The receptionist motioned one of the waiters. "He will guide you to your table, Naruto-sama."

Naruto barely kept from rolling his eyes, while Temari quietly giggled beside him. He good-naturedly elbowed her in the ribs, "Yeah, very funny."

To her surprise, the waiter led them upstairs to the roof, where the table were arranged. Few people were on the roof, chatting among themselves quietly. Temari figured that the tables up on the roof must be for the people who wanted some privacy.

The waiter sat them down on the table and they quickly gave their orders. Once he was gone, they started talking. "You know Naruto, your choice for where our date would be is commendable."

Naruto smiled and replied, "Yeah, I kind of wanted our date to be in a place where we both would be comfortable, but not so much as to come off like showing my wealth."

He spread out his arms, "This place offers great food, and privacy as well, not to mention the view from the roof is just mind blowing. It was for me, when I came here for the first time."

Temari looked around, feeling the cool breeze blowing around them. She got up and went to the railing, smiling at the view of the village that met her. Lights everywhere, it looked like the village itself was breathing with life. Not as great as the view that was offered from the Hokage mountain, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

She went back to her seat. "You chose a great place," she told him as she took his hand in hers.

Naruto smiled as he rubbed his thumb on her hand. "Funny story, actually, how I got us this seat."

Temari tilted her head in question, which he answered.

"Normally, they don't give rooftop reservations to teenagers. You must have noticed that we are the only teenagers up here."

Temari wasn't an idiot. She had noticed that particular detail, and she quickly pieced together what he was trying to say. Her lips turned upwards into a smirk. "You used your name to get this table, didn't you?"

Naruto's eyes twinkled with mischief and pride, the latter aimed at Temari. "You know, you alarm me sometimes with how sharp you are."

Temari accepted the compliment with a nod. "It wasn't exactly hard. Also, if you used your influence to get us this table, does this mean that clan heirs can come here as well?"

Naruto smirked, "You know, with some training, we can make a great detective out of you."

Temari laughed lightly, "I'm not suited for that. Maybe something little more kickass."

Both of them lightly chuckled at that. "Yes, clan heirs can come here. You need to understand that in Konoha, people who have good influence are treated a little better than those who don't. Which is not to say, the people with less influence get mediocre service."

He leaned forward, as if sharing a secret. "It's even better if you are related to the Hokage. Between us, I plan on using my influence whenever I can," he smirked at the last bit.

Temari gave him an approving look. "Good to see that you are not overly modest."

Naruto just looked to the sky with a smile. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a waiter coming their way. "Looks like our meals have arrived."

They made small talk between their meals, mostly about what they would like to become in the future. Of course, Temari already knew that Naruto's dream was to become the greatest Hokage ever. But it came as a surprise to Naruto that Temari wanted to be the greatest master of wind release there ever was. Of course, Naruto knew that she was already highly proficient with her large war fan, but had yet to begin training with the smaller ones.

That sparked an idea in his mind, but he would get to that later.

They finished their meals, paid for it and left. They were just strolling in the village with no destination in mind. Unknown to Temari, Naruto was steadily getting nervous. He had something he had to do tonight, something very important, and he did not want to mess it up.

'**You won't.'**

Naruto smiled a bit at Kurama's reassurance and turned his head to look at Temari. She was looking around, admiring the sights. He nudged her, causing her to face him. "How about we get somewhere private to sit down?"

She smiled, "I don't have a problem."

Suddenly, they were standing on top of Yondaime's head, overlooking the village. Naruto sat down, leaning his back against a spike of hair. Temari sat down beside him, leaning against his side. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close.

Naruto always treasured the time when he just got to sit like this with Temari and enjoy the silence.

"You ever wonder about the future?"

Temari's sudden question startled him out of his thoughts, and he turned to look at her. She was still facing the village, head on his shoulder. "Sometimes I do, though I prefer to live in the present."

"Why?"

Naruto thought a bit about the answer and then replied, "I can control what I do in the present. The future I cannot."

Temari turned her head towards him with a frown. "But the actions you do, influence your future. Wouldn't you know the outcome of your actions?"

Naruto smiled as he gave his answer. "I'm not the only one influencing my future now, am I?"

Temari looked deep in thought at that. Naruto turned his gaze back to the village with a smile, but in his mind, it was like a brooding feeling. He could feel it- a storm was coming towards them, and he wasn't sure if they were prepared or not. But he would do whatever he could to ensure that whatever was his would remain safe.

But then he remembered what he came here to do. He unwrapped his arm around Temari and got up, getting a confused look from her. "Will you stand up for a second?"

When she obliged, he gently grabbed her shoulders and stared into her teal eyes. Suddenly, it seemed a lot harder, and he almost wanted to turn around, but he was an Uzumaki, dammit! They don't run away from their problems!

"Temari, I am going to ask you a question. You just need to say yes or no, got it?"

He asked it with all the seriousness he could muster. Temari frowned as she was baffled by his request, but nodded. Naruto let out a breath and removed his arms from her shoulders, putting them into his pockets. He took a deep breath and relaxed.

"I really don't know how to say this, but I'll try my best. Temari, we both are powerful shinobi of our generations, and perhaps the most loyal, considering that we are willing to marry each other to cement our alliance."

Temari stood before him, looking completely confused and a bit alarmed. Nonetheless, Naruto continued. "It was one of my happiest days when we made out in that alleyway. In fact, that may have been the foundation to our growing love."

Even though Temari was blushing, the words felt alien to his tongue. He was not used to speaking in this way. For a person who always went straight to the point, this was difficult for him. "A lot of time has passed since then, and we are about to get married in the next three days. But I felt that…..I must not break the tradition of a wedding, so…."

He took out a small box from his pocket and opened it, revealing a stunning gold ring with intricate design on its band, but she had already gotten the point. Temari gasped in surprise and delight, her eyes filling with tears. This was what he had in mind all along…

"Marry me?"

Naruto had barely asked her the question when she jumped into his arms, her own wrapping around his neck tightly. His own wrapped themselves around her waist as he gave an ear to ear smile. This probably, no, without doubt, was the happiest moment in his life.

"Yes! Yes!"

Temari hugged Naruto with all her might as her tears finally escaped. But the tears were of joy, and she was sure she had never been more happier in her life.

It was every girl's dream to be proposed by the guy she loved, and since it was a political marriage, it had never occurred to Temari that Naruto would pop the question to her. They had been extremely luck in the first place that they had gotten engaged to each other. She pulled back and held out her left hand for him to slide the ring on, which he did with the biggest smile she had ever seen on his face.

When she looked closer, even his eyes seemed a little wet.

It was then she got a close look at the ring. It was gold, shining like his hair. It perplexed her a little that the intricate design on it seemed to be on the inside instead of the outside. The outside was plain gold, with a, surprisingly, head of a fox. Temari already knew which fox was that and she turned to him in question.

Naruto smiled and replied. "He has been a large part of my life till now, and will continue to be. In fact, he would never leave me, so I just had to include him."

Temari smiled and brushed her tears. He continued, "You see the intricate design on the inside? Those are seals. One of them is a tiny version of my Hiraishin marker. Just channel a bit your chakra in the ring and I'll be there. Also, I incorporated a blood seal as well. Whoever tries to remove that ring by surprise will have a nasty surprise waiting for him, including cutting off your finger."

She looked at the ring on her finger in wonder. "How did you write the seals on the inside?"

Naruto shrugged. "Shadow clones are very handy. They can transform into literally _anything. _Including smaller versions of themselves."

Temari laughed and hugged him tightly. After what happened in the last minute, she didn't want to let go of him. She realized in this moment, and she was no longer afraid of telling him. She was completely sure.

"I love you."

Naruto was completely taken aback with those words. They were the words that he had been yearning to hear all of his life from someone. Sure, Jiraiya had his own way of saying that he cared about him, but hearing the words out loud was a different feeling entirely.

It was…..he really didn't have words for it.

"R-Really?"

His voice broke for the first time when speaking to someone, but somehow, he didn't hate himself for it. Temari smiled and just hugged him tenderly.

"Yes."

His own arms wrapped around her waist tightly, and tears flowed from his eyes for the first time in a _very long time. _He was able to whisper back to her.

"I love you too."

XXXXXXX

Gaara and Kankuro were sitting in the living room, just passing time. Kankuro was actually explaining to Gaara how he worked his puppets when the redhead expressed his interest in them.

They both jumped, however, when Naruto and Temari suddenly appeared in front of them, arms wrapped around each other and giggling. Kankuro immediately assumed the worst, which was, Naruto doing naughty things with his sister. But before he could act foolishly, as always, he noticed that Temari seemed to be unusually happy. In fact, she was glowing from happiness.

Gaara noticed it too, for he asked her. "What is it that you're so happy about, Temari?"

Temari stopped stopped giggling, but the huge smile didn't leave her face. "Naruto proposed to me!"

At that, Kankuro stupidly asked her. "Why? You were already going to get married. There was no need to-"

"As long as Temari is happy," Gaara interrupted, knowing that Kankuro would probably say something that would ruin Temari's mood, "I have no problem with it."

Temari smiled as she hugged Gaara. "Thank you so much, Gaara."

She made Naruto sit down with her and recounted the details of their date to them, with unusual excitement. It was the first time that Naruto had seen her acting like Ino or Sakura, though the latter had cut down on her fangirling ways.

Gaara was genuinely happy for them, while Kankuro earned himself a bashing from Temari when he told Naruto in no uncertain terms that he was to inform Kankuro when he would go out with Temari. While that left Naruto annoyed, he simply told Kankuro that he earned the bashing from his sister, and he would deliver it as well if he continued spouting bullshit.

Gaara simply shook his head at his brother's foolishness, happy that he at least had common sense that his brother seemed to eternally lack.

He congratulated the couple and retired for the night. It was a strange feeling to be asleep, and it had tickled Naruto's funny bone when Gaara had asked him if it was okay to get addicted to sleep. Naruto had laughed for an entire minute at that question, and when he stopped, he clapped Gaara on the shoulder and said, "You aren't the only one, buddy."

He also took Kankuro with him using his sand, taking care that he did not litter the house with it.

Soon enough, night came and Naruto prepared to sleep. To be truthful, he still hadn't gotten off the high that Temari had told him she loved him. He knew that he wouldn't be getting sleep anytime soon due to his excitement, so he pulled out a card deck and settled himself on his bed for a few games with his clones.

Kami, he was crazy.

He was about to summon his clones when his door was knocked. He frowned and looked at the clock on the wall. Who could be knocking at eleven?

He opened the door, only for his breath to hitch slightly. Temari was leaning against his doorframe, dressed in a loose t-shirt that went down till her half thighs, exposing her long legs. Naruto seriously thought that they were the best feature about her after her eyes.

She smiled, "Hey."

He managed to return, "Hey yourself. If those are your nightclothes, I will never get tired of seeing you in that."

Temari chuckled, "So glad you like it."

Naruto found himself in an awkward position. What was he supposed to say?

"You can't sleep either?"

Temari shook her head gently, her hair moving with her. "With all the excitement you put me through today, I know I won't be able to sleep. I was wondering whether you wanted to pass the time with me."

Naruto blinked. "Sure, if you want to."

Temari smiled serenely and held out two fingers. "Choose one."

Naruto frowned. "What are these?"

"Nothing that would hurt you."

**Warning: Lime scene**

Naruto huffed at her vagueness and abruptly grabbed her index finger. Suddenly, her smile turned teasing and catching him off guard, she pulled him out of his room and smashed her lips against his.

He wasted no time in returning her kiss, his arms wrapping around her waist and in her hair, pulling her flush against him. In the back of his mind, he approved her way of burning of the excitement. One of her hands was wrapped around his neck and the other was fisted in his hair, making it more of a mess than it usually was.

Naruto pulled one of his hands so both of them were wrapped around her waist. He turned them around, gently slamming Temari into the wall. Neither of them cared whether the other inhabitants of the house were awake or sleeping. Both just wanted to experience the pleasure.

Naruto's left hand went down her thigh, going up the t-shirt she was wearing, and softly massaged the skin of her toned stomach. The contact of flesh spurred Temari further, as her left leg came up to wrap around Naruto's hips, his other hand instantly going to support it. Naruto's right hand was now brushing over the underside of her thigh, and his excitement only grew when his hand wasn't stopped from exploring the naked flesh of her ass. Even though she was wearing panties, Naruto's heart soared at the amount of trust she had in him. He broke off the kiss and started sucking at her pulse point. The gasp that followed his action swelled his ego a little, and he decided that he could get a little more bolder.

Temari was doing everything she could to keep her moans and gasps as quiet as possible, but it was proving to be a difficult job. She couldn't quieten the gasp when Naruto started sucking her pulse point, and it wasn't helping at all that one of his hands was massaging her waist, occasionally brushing her braless sides. The other hand was exploring the underside of the thigh that was wrapped around his hips, squeezing her ass cheek occasionally. Not to mention, she could feel his excitement poking her on her inner thigh.

She wanted some payback but before she could act on her thoughts, the hand that was massaging her sides went up, gently grabbing her breast and squeezing it.

The loud gasp that erupted from her throat would have almost woken up the other residents, had Naruto not slammed his mouth onto hers at the last second. They resumed their tongue fight, but Naruto held the advantage because of his pleasurable actions to her breast. His thumb started playing with her nipple, and it was then she decided to take action.

She knew that her hands brushing his abs made him shiver, but she was looking for something even more drastic, even bolder. Her right hand came down and went right inside his lower, wrapping around his flesh and squeezing it.

The effect was instantaneous.

His mouth opened in a gasp, and his actions faltered for a long second, in which she seized her chance. Her tongue invaded his mouth not so gently and explored every nook and corner of it, all the while, giving him a soft hand job. She had to admit, it was very long and thick. Naruto resumed his actions, while Temari continued hers. They knew that they were slowly breaking the physical boundaries between them, and whenever they did, they never spoke about it. They just did it.

And it felt good.

Suddenly, Temari stopped her ministrations and jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist, so Naruto's excitement was pressed into her crotch. She could see from his expression that he was barely keeping himself from slamming her into the wall and humping her then and there.

"Temari?"

Kami, even his voice sounded sexy right now, with all the huskiness. His hands were supporting her by her ass. Both of them were breathing heavily, their faces inches from one another.

"Let's go into your room," she suggested breathlessly.

Naruto was all too happy to accept her suggestion, and carried her into his room, making sure to shut his door gently. He then laid her down on his bed, with him on top of her. The intimate contact they had was not yet broken. Temari grinned like the devil, "Let's burn off this excitement."

She then pulled him down, engaging in another heated make out session.

**Lime scene end**

Both of them would later admit, that the night was one for the books.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 26

**AN: Hey guys! I hope you liked that last chapter, though I know you did from the reviews I got from it. I tried to keep the balance between the romance and actual storyline. I know I mentioned body enhancement using seals, and I will deliver it, but not now. This chapter will mostly concentrate on the wedding. Also, a bit of extra romance in the beginning. Enjoy!**

**Warning: (Possibly awkward) Description of sexual events. **

**P.S: I made a mistake earlier, guys, and I apologize for correcting it now. You see, I like imagining the story when I read it. So, it's quite hard for me to imagine a 4bhk house, with all the bedrooms on the first floor. It's also quite impractical, now that I think about it. But anyways, it's a problem for me. Some of you might think it's a minor problem, but **_**I'm**_** really starting to get irritated.**

**From this chapter on, it's a 4bhk house, **_**single floor. **_**The simulation room is still in the basement.**

**P.P.S: Sorry, but I have no idea how Japanese weddings work. I just took the idea from several fanfics.**

Sleep always came to Naruto quite easily. It was one of the benefits of following a strict training schedule and thus, maintaining his body at its physical peak.

But having a strict timetable also meant that his body had an alarm clock of its own, informing him when it was time to eat, train, drink, sleep, or in this case, wake up. As soon as it was five in the morning, Naruto's eyes fluttered open and as was his habit, blinked his eyes repeatedly to get the sleep out of his eyes. He was about to roll over and get up, but stopped when he felt his hand was hooked with something.

Another hand.

Last night's events flashed into his mind, and a small smile crossed over his face as he got back into his place. His front was pressed against a bare back, his legs tangled with his bed partner's, his left hand resting on her stomach and hooked with her own left hand. His breath brushed against the back of her neck, but she was too deep in sleep to react to that.

He looked under the sheet, and felt a small relief about the fact that they were still wearing their underwear. He had an eidetic memory, but visual confirmation still made him feel a bit better. They had not done sex last night, but came very damn close. Naruto respected Temari's wishes that they not have sex until their wedding night, because she wanted that moment to be special for both of them. However, that did not mean they couldn't try certain…_adventurous _things.

He looked back up and just pulled Temari closer to him by her stomach. She responded to him in her sleep by shuffling behind, so that they were in full contact under the covers. Naruto then realized that he might have made a a mistake pulling her closer. The reason he thought that way was that he was a teenage boy, and being one of those beings meant he tended to have something of a morning wood. His excitement only rose when his girl shifted closer to him, her hips pressing against his flesh and causing his breath to hitch.

He took a deep breath and tried to strengthen his resolve. There was no getting out of this, well, there _was, _but a part of him didn't want to. Also, he was sure that Temari would wake up after feeling something pressed against her private parts.

He would just have to wait, as painful as it was.

XXXXXXX

Temari's eyes slowly fluttered open, as her mind rebooted from REM sleep. She felt warm, which was odd, considering she wasn't wearing her night t-shirt. She looked down and blinked, then cracked a small smile on seeing the slightly larger hand resting over her smaller one.

Memories of last night came to the front of her mind, and her face broke into a large grin at what had happened. She and Naruto had continued their activities for over an hour after they began, after which they had decided to sleep, not even minding the mess on the sheets.

Last night was the first time she and Naruto had ever went this far. But that wasn't anything new for them. Every time they made out, they went a little farther than the last time. What would be more correct to say was, last night was the first time they had engaged in any sort of sexual contact.

She had given her first handjob, and gotten her vagina stimulated by someone else's fingers for the first time as well. And both of them had loved it, regardless of the mess they had made on the sheets.

As more of her memories returned, the sensations to her body returned as well. She became aware how her back was pressed to Naruto's chest, her legs were tangled with his. And, something was poking her in the ass.

Like she could feel Naruto's own heart beating fast at the contact, hers sped up as well. Before she could take a course of action, she moaned at the feeling of feather light kisses brushing the back of her neck. The hand that was overlapping her own started roaming as well.

"I see you had a good night's sleep," she managed to get out.

She felt Naruto's smile against her skin, "I'm sure you did too."

Temari was lightly panting by now, because of Naruto's ministrations. Her delightfully rose up and down, to Naruto's entertainment. Temari slowly shifted so she was lying on her back, legs spreading on their own. Naruto maneuvered himself so he was between her legs, both of their crotch areas in contact.

"We should…probably….get up," Temari gasped out, pleasure increasing as Naruto massaged her nipples.

Naruto didn't even pause, "It's five in the morning right now."

That was enough of an incentive for Temari to grab his head with her hands and bring him down for a ferocious lip-lock. Their tongues dueled as her legs tightened around him. That prompted Naruto to slowly start moving backwards and forwards.

Forty-five minutes later, both of them were panting as they cuddled on the bed, the sheets wet once again. Naruto rested against the headboard, with Temari laying her head on his chest, her legs resting over his under the sheets. She was idly drawing circles with her finger on his chest.

"I can't imagine how sex would feel if only this feels so incredible," Temari commented.

Naruto chuckled, "I'm sure it would be at least ten times more incredible than this."

Temari gave him a sultry look. "I'm sure you can't wait to find out."

Naruto truthfully replied. "You're right, I can't. But I will exercise the incredible willpower I have to restrain myself until our wedding night."

Temari softly giggled and kissed him on his cheek. "And I can't wait to see what happens when you break that restraint."

They both went silent after that, just enjoying the quiet till it lasted. Of course, both of them froze when they heard the light, yet unmistakable sound of a door opening. It was the bedroom right across from them, which meant it was Gaara and Kankuro's room. Light, but sure footsteps exited and slowly made their way to the living room.

That was Gaara.

Naruto released a breath. "I think it's best if you made your way to your room now."

"Good idea," Temari whispered as she got out of the covers.

Naruto's eyes drank in the form of a mostly naked Temari hungrily. His excitement started to rise up once again at the sight, making it uncomfortable for him since it was restrained by his boxers.

As she was picking up her t-shirt from the floor, giving Naruto a great view of her behind, she noticed a tent forming under the sheets and smirked.

"Aren't you a horny one?" she remarked.

"Can you blame me? You are the one tempting me by standing nude like that!" Naruto returned.

Temari looked at him and then the clock. Turning back to him, she said, "You know, I don't wake up until at least six thirty, so my room remains undisturbed. So we still have-"

**Warning: Small Lime scene**

"a bit of time" was left unsaid as a pair of lips crashed against hers. The t-shirt dropped from her hand to the ground as both of them came to wrap around Naruto's neck, pulling their bodies flush. Her chest pressed against his and his erection pressed against her stomach, his boxers looking like they were close to tearing in half. His hands cupped her behind, pressing her into him even more.

They both furiously made out, standing in the middle of the room for a short while after which Naruto pulled her up. Her legs immediately wrapped around his waist in response. His erection, that was pressing into her stomach, was now pressed directly into her crotch. She moaned lightly as Naruto used his hands to move her up and down.

But he seemed to get a better idea, as he backed slowly until the back of his knees pressed against the bed. He slowly sat down, allowing Temari to comfortably put her weight on his crotch. She began grinding him as his one of his hands came to massage her breast.

Temari broke the lip-lock just long enough to say, "You sure have endurance." She then attacked his neck.

Naruto's hand, that was cupping her behind, pressed against the small of her back to pull them flush. "No one can top an Uzumaki in endurance."

They continued making out for another twenty minutes, before reaching a crescendo once more. The both panted as they made eye contact, neither wanting to leave each other.

**Lime scene end**

Naruto was the one who broke the silence. "You are making me addicted to you."

Temari smirked before giving him a soft kiss. "I believe that's my line."

She then got up from his lap. Her panties were all wet, as were the bedsheets. She looked at Naruto and raised her eyebrows, "Seriously, can you even run out of that?"

To say Naruto's boxers were a mess was an understatement. He shrugged and got up. "Who knows? Maybe we'll test it out."

Temari blushed before putting on her t-shirt, making her way to the door. She then froze, and turned to him with a slightly panicky look. "Gaara's still outside!"

Naruto waved away her worry. "He likes to take a walk in the ground behind the house at this time, and Kankuro doesn't get up until eight, so you're good."

Temari raised an eyebrow slightly, "I don't know if I should be impressed or creeped out that you know my brothers' timetable so well."

Naruto smirked at her, "I make it a point to know who my guests are, _very thoroughly."_

Temari shook her head off the blush at the double meaning in the statement, then opened the door quietly, checking whether Gaara was there or not. Upon seeing no one, she exited, winking at him before closing the door.

Naruto released a sigh, followed by a chuckle. "Never thought I would get addicted to something other than training. Might need to correct that."

He would have created clones to clean his room up, but first he needed a shower. He headed into the bathroom and as hot water washed over him, he remarked to himself. "Correct seems a bit harsh. I'll have to _control _it."

XXXXXXX

Naruto came out for breakfast when it was five minutes to six-thirty, and found Gaara drinking a cup of tea that he had made for himself. Gaara rose an eyebrow at him, "It's quite unusual of you to wake up this late."

Naruto shrugged as he took a seat, making four clones to start making breakfast for him, Temari and Gaara. Kankuro prepared his own, since he got up later than everyone. "I do have my off days. Sometimes I just like to wake up and lie in the bed, staring up and getting lost in my thoughts."

Gaara nodded as he sipped the last of his tea. "I like to do that too, except I do it when I'm outside."

They both were quiet after that, the only sound coming was from the cooking that the clones were doing. Suddenly, Gaara surprised Naruto with a question. "How are the preparations for the wedding going?"

Naruto frowned a little. "Well, Tsunade baa-chan said they were on schedule. In two days is the wedding, so we should be fine."

Then he frowned a bit more heavily. "On second thought, I might not be so fine. I might have to run an important errand today itself." His eyes narrowed along with the frown, "or two."

Gaara's curiosity grew at Naruto's serious expression. "Must be some very important errands."

Naruto nodded, "They are indeed."

The breakfast was ready and soon, they started eating, occasionally talking about some trivial things or the wedding. Just as they had finished eating it, Temari came out of her room, in her usual attire. She sat down on the dining table beside Naruto.

"Good morning Gaara, Naruto."

"Good morning, Nee-san."

"To you as well."

Temari served herself the breakfast that was reserved for her, and started eating. "So, Naruto, anything special you have to do today?"

Naruto looked up and spoke in a mocking tone. "Hm, let's see. There's training, studying, a meeting with Tsunade….. I think that's it."

He was treated to deadpan look from Temari. "Naruto," she began slowly, "that's what you do practically _every day."_

Naruto pretended to be surprised, "Oh, do I?"

Seeing as Temari was starting to look irritated, he chuckled and said. "Sorry, just messing with you. I have two important errands to run today, and I also need to talk to you alone about something."

Temari slowly gulped what was in her mouth. "Is it related to the wedding?"

Naruto shook his head.

Temari slowly nodded and said after thinking for a while. "How about we talk in the evening, after you've done your errands?"

"Sounds good to me."

After the breakfast was finished, they got up and got started on their days. Naruto and Temari went to do a bit of personal training, while Gaara went to….do his own thing.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke heavily panted as he stared at the silver haired man before him. He was training with Kakashi right now, since this was one of the rare days that they weren't doing D-rank missions. As soon as Kakashi had told them that they could do whatever they wanted this day, Sasuke had grabbed the chance and asked him to train with him. Sakura had gone to do some extra medical training at the hospital.

Luckily, it seemed that Kakashi was in a good mood today. He had agreed and for the last three hours, they had been fighting non-stop. Kakashi was trying to get Sasuke used to making some tactical decisions when fighting, instead of letting his emotions get in the way. And he was not afraid to beat his ass, _hard._

It seriously irked Sasuke that Kakashi had not even broken a sweat, which meant Sasuke had yet to push the man outside of his comfort zone. Not even that, but Kakashi had not even revealed his sharingan yet, while Sasuke had activated it as soon as the fight had begun. But he appreciated that Kakashi was at least being serious.

"It's good that you want to train your sharingan, but don't make the same mistake that your clan did. Well, most of them anyway."

Kakashi's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he snapped back at him. "What mistake?!"

Kakashi looked as lazy as usual, but his voice was serious. "Don't rely on it too much. Doing so would make it a handicap more than a tool."

Anger rose up in Sasuke, but he ruthlessly pushed it back down. Sharingan was his bloodline, and he would use it as he saw fit! But there was a truth in Kakashi's words. Sasuke _did _use it in every fight, ever since he activated it.

Kakashi walked towards Sasuke. "The sharingan is a part of you, but it is a tool that you make use of in battle. And the tool is only as good as its wielder. In your case, it augments the way you fight. You control the tool, not the other way around. Take ten, then we'll resume."

Sasuke saw the truth in those words. The sharingan was incredible, but useless if you didn't know how to use it. It gave him the ability to predict attacks, but Sasuke was still trying to control his body's reaction upon knowing where the attack would hit. He was automatically moving around the attack according to the sharingan, and that was exactly what Kakashi had taken advantage of. The man knew how he would react and capitalized on it.

Kakashi's understanding of the sharingan was truly genius-level.

Sasuke sat down to take a break, while Kakashi pulled out his book. While Sasuke appreciated how good of a teacher Kakashi was when he put his mind to it, it was rare. Most of the times, Sasuke did his training alone. He would ask Naruto, but the guy was busy in preparations of his wedding (and hadn't that been a surprise!) and not to mention, he trained on his own.

While Sasuke was slowly improving, the pace was still too slow to his liking. Every day, he felt like Itachi was getting further and further away from him, while he desperately tried to keep up. And not just Itachi.

Naruto was leaps ahead of him, and Sasuke didn't even know what he was fully capable of. Still, regardless of what Naruto had told him in the hospital room, Sasuke was getting endlessly frustrated at how slowly he was improving. Was it because of his drive? Lacking motivation?

His desire to get revenge on Itachi was motivation enough, but he was nowhere near Itachi's level when his brother was his age. Itachi was like Naruto, leaps and bounds ahead of everyone. But like Naruto had said, Itachi was a sort of genius that came once in generations. It would be completely wrong of him to say that he could progress with the same pace as his brother.

But Naruto had also said that you can get stronger when you have something to protect. Was that the reason why he was not getting strong quick enough? That he didn't have something to protect? Was his desire to protect Naruto when Itachi was after him fake?

Whatever Naruto said, Sasuke was starting to think that he wouldn't get strong quickly enough if he were to remain in this village. He had nothing to protect. The bonds he had formed…..they had to be strong enough to hurt if he loses them. He empathized with him, that was for sure, but they were not the same. They both had different circumstances while growing up. Which meant, Sasuke couldn't grow strong like the way Naruto did. His means of getting stronger would have to be drastically different.

His re-encounter with Itachi had reminded him what he was supposed to focus on.

The curse mark on his neck burned slightly, causing him to suppress a hiss. It was no good if Kakashi saw, and being the genius he was, would quickly figure out what kind of thoughts were running in Sasuke's head. On the other hand, the burning of the curse mark reminded Sasuke of the person who gave it to him.

Orochimaru was one of the Sannin, like Jiraiya, and one of the most powerful shinobi in the world. Personally trained by the Sandaime, the man was even rumored to become the Yondaime. Ousted because of his highly unethical experimentations, Orochimaru became a S-rank missing nin and an enemy of Konoha.

An epiphany struck Sasuke. Naruto was being trained by Jiraiya, and Sasuke was pretty sure he would become the man's apprentice, given his genius. He had heard from Kakashi that Sakura was taking medical lessons at the hospital, and was the only one who was personally trained by Tsunade, even if it was only sometimes. She was not Tsunade's apprentice, but she was still being trained by a Sannin.

The entirety of team 7 was being trained by a Sannin, save for him. Both Naruto and Sakura are each getting stronger in their own ways, assisted by some of the most powerful shinobi in the world. Why the hell was he being left out?!

Leaving the village to train under the remaining Sannin was looking like a very good idea.

"I could have killed you over five times by now."

The voice snapped Sasuke out of his thoughts and by pure reflex, he stood up and threw a kunai in the direction of the voice.

Naruto lazily caught the kunai with just two fingers. Hooking it with his finger, he rotated it. "Nice reaction time, but unneeded if you were aware of my presence in the first place."

Kakashi closed his book. "So nice of you to visit us, Naruto. I'm really glad you still remember us," he said it with an eye smile.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I would have apologized for that if I didn't have a really good reason."

Kakashi rose an eyebrow. "Which is?"

Naruto spread out his arms. "I'm preparing for my wedding."

He walked up to them, a lazy smile on his face. His left hand went in his back pocket, and he held out two teal envelopes. "I wanted to personally invite team 7. Normally, you wouldn't be sent invitations, but you know that I don't do normal."

Kakashi and Sasuke took out the invitations from inside. Kakashi was happy, for he would get to see Naruto on his wedding day. _'I wish you were there on the day, sensei,' _he thought nostalgically.

Sasuke on the other hand, didn't know what to feel. He tried to feel happy for him, but his mind was wandering elsewhere. He settled for a "Congratulations" in the end.

"So, were you training?"

"Yes, actually. I was training Sasuke to improve on his sharingan."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Learn any new jutsu lately?"

Sasuke dryly remarked, pointing a thumb to Kakashi. "No, he's a selfish man. I thought you would have known."

Naruto snorted. "Never expected a sense of humor from you, but it's a pleasant surprise."

Sasuke got up. "What about you? Have _you _learnt anything new?"

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Yes, I have."

Kakashi was curious as well. "Do show."

Naruto gazed around, seeing a large rock that had numerous cracks running from a center that showed a repeated, single point penetration. He pointed a thumb at it, "Mind if I have a go?"

Sasuke was about to refuse him, telling him he needed that rock, but stopped himself in time. That actually sounded a bit stupid. "By all means."

Naruto walked over to the rock and asked Sasuke. "You were practicing the chidori on this, right?"

Sasuke nodded, curious to see what Naruto would do. He watched as Naruto slowly lifted his right hand, palm turned upwards. He turned on his sharingan to watch more closely, and he was glad that he did, because one moment, his palm held nothing but air. The next moment, a solid, rotating sphere of chakra, the size of a toy football, hovered in his hand. He heard Kakashi suck in a breath next to him.

He was blown away by what happened next.

Naruto pulled back his arm, and pushed it forward, slamming the sphere of chakra right at the point where Sasuke practiced his chidori. It took only a little more than a second for the rock to completely _obliterate_ into pieces from the cracks that spread out. Nothing remained of the rock that was previously standing there.

Sasuke was gaping at the sheer, destructive power of the jutsu. He was aware that chidori was an assassination jutsu and therefore, not capable of causing such destruction since the electricity was concentrated at a single point to penetrate. But he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if that jutsu were to go against chidori.

"When did you learn the rasengan?"

Kakashi's question gave Sasuke insight into the jutsu's name. He felt like he had read about that somewhere…..

"Ero-sennin taught me while we were searching for our wayward Hokage," Naruto answered while walking back to them.

Kakashi shook his head in wonder. "Even Jiraiya-sama took seven months to learn that, how the hell did you manage to learn it in one month?!"

Naruto shrugged. "Perks of being a genius. Though between the three of us," he leaned in as if sharing a secret, "it frustrated the hell out of me."

Sasuke smirked at the image of Naruto scowling in frustration at his own hand as if it was betraying him. It felt vaguely satisfying. He looked up to see Naruto holding out a scroll to him. He frowned, "What's this?"

Naruto just handed it to him. "A katon jutsu I thought you might find interesting, being a pyromaniac and all that."

Sasuke scowled. "I'm not a pyromaniac!" He accepted the scroll nonetheless.

Naruto smirked. "Could've fooled me. Anyways, I have a few more errands to run today, so I'll see you later. Oh, and don't forget to come at the wedding. If you do, you know what I will do. Kakashi, you better not be late."

He flashed away after that.

Sasuke looked down at the invitation and felt his lips twitching upwards. He knew exactly what Naruto would do.

XXXXXXX

Sakura was walking back to where she had left her lab coat. The lunch break was over, and she was to work with Arashi-sensei, who would teach her about how to identify poisons and create antidotes.

She found her coat and put it on, frowning when she felt something in her pocket. She took it out and her eyes widened in delight when she found a teal envelope. She instantly knew that it was a wedding invitation to her teammate's wedding.

She found another note in her pocket, this time a folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, she read it.

_Sakura,_

_I'm inviting you, along with Kakashi and Sasuke, to my wedding, seeing as you were the only ones of the rookies to not receive an invitation. Well, except team nine, but I can't invite them, as unfortunate as it is. Seeing as almost all of the genin teams would be there, it wouldn't do for team 7 to not be there. _

_Don't be late._

_Naruto_

Sakura gave a small squeal at the note. She put it into her pocket and happily skipped to the lab. She would have to search for a dress to wear that evening.

XXXXXXX

Anko was sitting at the dango shop, eating her favorite food in the world, when someone sat down in front of her.

"You _will _get fat if you don't compensate all of that with some training, you know."

If it had been anyone, she would have chucked a stick at the person for insinuating that she would get fat. She was one of the hottest kunoichis in Konoha, dammit!

But she knew that voice anywhere, and she snapped open her eyes. Naruto was sitting in front of her, smiling fondly.

She leant back in her seat with a smirk. "Well, well, look who dropped by. I was beginning to think you had forgotten me."

Naruto sighed. "I don't know if you were in touch, but Kakashi pretty much told me the same thing."

Anko shrugged, "Well, as much as I want to, I can't blame you. Preparations for a wedding can be hectic, I guess."

Naruto nodded, "That, and spending some time with my fiancée."

Anko leaned forward on the desk, a teasing smile on her face. "Oh, and how do you like the pleasures that the female body has to offer?"

His cheeks went a little red, but he did manage to reply. "We have not done _it _yet, if that's what you mean."

Anko shrugged innocently. "When did I say anything about fucking?You can do a whole lot of things other than that, and I can see it on your face that you _have _done other things," she finished with a perverted leer.

Naruto looked away at that. She was not wrong. "Listen, I came to talk to you about something important."

An eyebrow raise. "Oh, and about what?"

Naruto stood up, "I think we need a little privacy."

One moment later, they were standing in a training field. Anko blinked at the sudden change in scenery. "That is handy," she commented.

Naruto smiled softly, "Don't I know it?"

He took a deep breath. He would not hesitate on this. "Would you attend my wedding as my mother?"

That shocked Anko into silence. She could do nothing but stare at him, a hand going to cover her open mouth. Tears prickled her eyes at how high Naruto seemed to hold her. "I-Is this what you wanted to a-ask me?"

Naruto smiled and nodded. "You have been there and taken care of me for years, sensei. Besides the Sandaime, you have been there for me the longest, so it only seemed fit to invite you as my mother. It's totally fine though, if you don't want to, I don't want to pressure you or anythi-"

He was cut off when Anko wrapped him in a hug, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Thank you, Naruto."

That was perhaps the most heartfelt thing Naruto had ever heard from his sensei, and it was beautiful. The hug felt exactly like the one he got from Temari, full of love.

He wrapped his own arms around her, "No. Thank _you."_

XXXXXXX

After a goodbye to her, Naruto proceeded to the place that held some of his….not so fond memories. But who cared about the place?

He was there to meet someone.

Naruto walked through the halls slowly, recalling each and every incident or prank he had played, and got punished for it, even if they could never prove it. Only one person believed him, but it was one person against everyone else.

The lunch hour had been over for fifteen minutes, but Naruto was sure that he could hustle Iruka-sensei out for a minute or two. He knew what the chakra signature felt like, and followed it to where it was in the academy. He was surprised though, because it seemed Iruka's class seemed to have changed from the ground floor to the first.

He stopped outside the door that Iruka was standing behind, along with one other chunin level chakra signature. Good, which means the class won't start howling at his absence. He knocked on the door, his keen ears picking up the silence that followed after his knocking.

Thankfully, it was Iruka who approached the door and not the other instructor. The door opened, causing Iruka's eyes to widen in surprise on seeing Naruto.

"Naruto….?"

Naruto was standing behind the door such that the class wouldn't be able to see him. He whispered, "Can we talk?"

Iruka blinked, "S-Sure. One second."

He turned to the other instructor in the room. "Haruki, will you take over for a few minutes? Thanks."

Without waiting for a reply, Iruka exited and closed the door. He turned to Naruto, face laced with concern. "Is everything alright?"

Naruto motioned with his head, "Let's talk on the roof."

Two minutes later, they both were standing on the roof, with Iruka standing in front of Naruto. "So what is this about, Naruto?"

Naruto took a deep breath. "Will you attend my wedding as my father?"

Iruka's blinked first in shock, and then when the question finally settled, his eyes started watering, but he immediately wiped them. He never thought that Naruto saw him as one, since their relationship leaned more towards the older brother-younger brother line. But if Naruto thought he could stand in place of Namikaze Minato, then he would do his best.

He gave a heartfelt smile. "I would be honored, Naruto."

XXXXXXX

"What's up?"

The moment he had finished the words, four swords were pointed at his throat from four directions. Naruto stood there calmly, not even fazed by the swords.

Tsunade, who was already annoyed that the day's paperwork was increasing, looked up in irritation at the intruder. Naruto did not have an ounce of guilt, barging in her office like that. "You got some nerve, I'll give you that."

Naruto chuckled as the guards went back to their posts after being waved away by Tsunade. "If I didn't, I wouldn't be here."

"So, to what do I owe the displeasure?"

Naruto deadpanned. "That is harsh. Anyway, you were the one who called me today, so you tell me."

Tsunade blinked. "I did?"

She then suddenly remembered. "Oh right! I did have some business with you. Have you read up on what you are supposed to do in the ceremony?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, but replied. "Yes, I did read up on that. I thought that my brain would shrivel up from boredom."

Deciding to ignore that, she stood up. "Alright, make two clones. There is something else we need to get done today itself."

Doing as she asked, two clones of him appeared on his right and left. Tsunade made two clones herself. She then paired one of her own with one of Naruto's and assigned them their jobs.

She pointed to the pair on the right of Naruto. "You, get him fitted with a wedding kimono and tell them we need before tomorrow ends." Naruto's eyes widened as he cursed himself for forgetting that detail.

Pointing to the other pair, she said, "Go with him and make sure everything is properly prepared for the reception at his house."

When they were gone, Tsunade flashed through hand seals, pressing her hand onto a part of the wall. Seals flashed over the room, ensuring their privacy. Naruto had upgraded the seals on the behest of Tsunade, for a very handsome pay.

Naruto rose and eyebrow when Tsunade sat down on her chair. "Grab a chair and sit down."

He internally wondered what was so serious, but complied anyway. Once he was settled, Tsunade pulled out a book from her drawer. "I remembered that since you were practically alone when you were growing up, you missed some very vital education."

'_What is she talking abo- oh crap.'_

When Tsunade opened a page of the book, Naruto's eyes immediately saw what was in there and he blanked out. Kurama was snickering within him, the utter bastard that he was.

Naruto knew what sex was and how to do it, even if he hadn't done it. But after numerous make out sessions with his fiancée, he had a pretty solid idea of what he was supposed to do. It was human instinct, after all.

"I figured it out that no one has explained the 'Birds and the Bees' to you, so I'm going to remedy that. You should count yourself lucky, since I'm the best medical kunoichi there is," Tsunade nonchalantly said, unaware of the horror that was internally growing in Naruto.

Naruto was torn on the inside. On one hand, he wanted nothing more to flash away from here and hide in his study, where no one can come in. But on the other hand, education on sex was pretty important. He didn't know anything about the dangers of it, or how to prevent those dangers. So with a long suffering sigh, he mentally prepared himself.

Kurama couldn't stop laughing in mirth within him.

XXXXXXX

"And that's about it," Tsunade finished thoughtfully, trying to think whether she missed anything. She looked up from the copy to see Naruto with a completely blank face, devoid of any horror that is the usual reaction when parents talk to their children about sex. She knew she was, and it was even more awkward because that talk was given to her by her grandfather, because he was the greatest medical nin of his time.

It also did not help that he was the biggest goof she knew before Jiraiya.

Naruto might have looked calm on the inside, but he was mentally asking himself the question that why did it require an hour and a half to do this talk. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to go into a training ground and train himself to exhaustion. Anything to get his mind off this, but it really wouldn't work.

Eidetic memory can be a curse sometimes. Case in point, this.

"Is that all?"

His voice came out calm, yet he was anything but that. Tsunade nodded with a cheerful smile. "Yes, you can go now."

She disabled the privacy seals, and as soon as she did that, Naruto was gone in a flash. She chuckled, "You can't fool me, brat. I know you are completely freaked out on the inside."

Naruto had flashed to the Hokage mountain, and spread out his senses. Once he had what he was looking for, he used the body flicker to get there since the person he was looking for had no marking on his body.

"SASUKE!"

The shout surprised the boy, but he turned around and found Naruto briskly walking towards him. By his expression, he looked calm but his body told him anything but that.

Naruto neared him and spoke, "You and I are going to have a spar, _right_ _now_."

That shocked him greatly, for Naruto never sought out a fight with him. It was usually the other way around. But he was never the one to turn down a challenge like that. He smirked as he activated his sharingan. "I don't have a problem with that. I've been wanting to test out some of the new stuff I've learnt lately."

One hour later, Sasuke was lying on the ground, fully exhausted. Even lifting an arm seemed like a chore. With great difficulty, he made use of his hands to sit up, leaning against one of the training posts. He then observed Naruto, who was standing ten feet from him and scowled.

Naruto was looking equally exhausted, but the guy still had enough energy to remain standing. Sasuke had started using resistance seals as well, and was sure that Naruto did too, but only at a higher level. Kakashi was the one who put those on him, and the results had shown.

He was faster, his stamina had improved, along with his strength and endurance.

But it was clear that he had a long way to go if he wanted to catch up to Naruto. If the guy was looking that exhausted after just one hour of continuous sparring, Sasuke could only wonder how much resistance Naruto was using. But even then Naruto had held the upper hand.

Naruto was slowly getting his breath back. _'Wow, he really has improved. There were fewer holes in his style, and the ones I could see were difficult to exploit. He also has gotten faster lately, although that could be because of the resistance seals I spotted. He might almost be as good as Lee now.'_

He took out a storage scroll from one his his jacket pockets, unsealing two bottles of water. Walking towards Sasuke, he sat down next to him and handed over one bottle. The Uchiha gratefully accepted this with a nod and opened it.

Both of them finished the contents in one go.

"Thanks buddy, I really needed that," Naruto spoke after he had gotten most of his breath back.

"Why did you, though?"

Naruto shook his head, "Had to get my mind off something. Hardly does me any good because of my perfect memory, but I still appreciate it."

"Hn."

The spar had been very good for Sasuke as well. It had been a very long time since he had actually enjoyed a spar like that. No one among his age group was good enough to give him a challenge, except for Naruto. The spar told him a lot about how Naruto fought. Good information, if they ever fought seriously in the future.

Of course, he wasn't naïve enough to think that Naruto did not analyze his fighting style as well. Naruto was a genius of fighting, whether it be ninjutsu or taijutsu.

Naruto got up with a grunt, mumbling. "I'm going to feel that for some time." Louder, he said, "Well, I should go. There is something I have to talk to Temari about."

"Thanks for the spar."

Naruto turned at Sasuke's voice, surprise flickering his face for moment, before being replaced with a smirk. "To you as well."

He was gone in a flash, leaving Sasuke to his thoughts.

XXXXXXX

Temari was just finished with her shower and coming out of her room when she saw Naruto, sitting in the living room. He saw her and gave a small smile. "Hey."

"Hey. Was your day interesting?"

Naruto made a face like he was considering. "You could say that. Listen, there's something I need to talk to you about."

Surprise flashed over Temari's face. "Oh?"

Over the next half an hour, Naruto explained everything about what was written in his father's journal. Temari was patient through all of it, and when Naruto was finished, she took a minute to gather her thoughts. "So let me get this straight. Your father figured out a way to enhance the human body without any ramifications?"

Naruto nodded.

"I am glad that you didn't keep this as a secret from me, Naruto. But what am I supposed to do with this information?"

Naruto leaned back, shrugging. "Keeping it a secret would be good. Also, would you consider doing it?"

Temari raised her eyebrows in shock and disbelief. "What?!"

Naruto looked a bit uncomfortable, but made eye contact nonetheless. "I talked it out with ero-sennin and baa-chan, Temari. They have said that the operation is perfectly safe. My father and my mom made sure that all the flaws were corrected before dad underwent the procedure.

"I decided to do this because…I wanted to be as strong as possible so, I could protect what was close to me. If this is one of the ways, then I will do it."

Temari's shock had still yet to recede. "Naruto…..I…don't know what to say."

Naruto reached out and held one of Temari's hands. "Temari, one of the reason shinobi strive to get stronger is so they can endure and therefore, protect. People don't care about the means of getting stronger if you are doing the right thing with the power you get. My father left a special note for me in this, saying that he hoped with how strong he will get from this, he would be able to protect me and my mom."

Temari looked unsure. "Naruto, I don't know about this….."

"Of course, I won't force you to undergo. It is completely your choice. I just wanted to make you see the benefits of this," Naruto said, getting up.

Temari got up with him. "Can I get some time to think about this?"

Naruto smiled. "Take all the time you need. If you want some more details about this, just come into my study. I have to key you in and show you the password, so come with me. You might have to drag me out in the future if I get too engrossed," he added, making her smirk.

After about twenty minutes, Naruto had keyed in Temari's chakra signature to his study. He went in and took out his journal, putting it on the table and sliding it to her. "It's best if you read it inside here."

She nodded and stood up, sliding it back to him. "I'll read it whenever I can. In the meantime," she smiled a bit shyly, "would you like to have some dinner?"

Naruto rose an eyebrow. "You can cook?"

She nodded, shuffling her feet. "Kankuro always told me he liked my cooking, and I have always found it very soothing."

Naruto was a bit wary, but thought he should show a bit of trust in his soon to be wife. "Alright. Do you want some kitchen staff, though? My clones are awesome."

Temari was already walking away, though. "No thanks!"

Turns out, Temari was a _very _good cook. Naruto was struggling to keep his table manners. "This is really good," he said between bites.

Temari grinned as she ate her own food. "Thank you! It's good to know that all that time spent in the kitchen seeing the servants cook wasn't a waste of time."

Naruto finished his food quickly and put down his sticks, looking at Temari with an expression of utmost seriousness. "I want to propose something."

Temari was caught off guard by the sudden change in the atmosphere. "W-What?"

"Would you please cook at least three days of the week?"

That statement did not deserve the amount of seriousness Naruto was giving it, and so Temari broke into peals of laughter. "Oh, Naruto," she said once the laughter had subsided, "I'll cook for you anytime you want."

Naruto backpaddled a little. "No, it's just that, I don't want to put this as a duty or a burden on you."

Temari stood up and walked over to Naruto. She wrapped her arms around him from behind and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "It's not a burden at all, sweetie. Especially if I like doing it."

XXXXXXX

Two days passed like a breeze and soon it was the day of his wedding. And like any other man, he was incredibly nervous. Anko was standing beside him, adjusting his robes and fussing over his makeup, which he had worn for the first time in his life. Also, Anko's fussing was incredibly out of character for her, but somehow she made it look very natural.

Very motherly.

"Seriously, you should just relax, or you'll ruin your makeup. Think of it as another mission," she lightly chastised him.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Maybe I'll get to say it to you on _your _wedding day."

He received a light slap on his arm for that. Tsunade had been informed of Naruto's decision of asking Iruka and Anko to attend his wedding, and she was a bit confused since she wasn't aware of their history. However, that was quickly remedied after a brief history lesson.

**(Now, you readers would think that Naruto should have asked Jiraiya to be there as his father, but Naruto acknowledged Iruka close to him, before Jiraiya. For reference, go to chapter 5.)**

The door to his room was knocked. "You ready in there, Naruto?"

Naruto replied back, "Come in, and almost."

The door opened and Iruka stepped in, dressed in formal robes as well. "Wow, you look….really good."

Naruto gave a tight smile. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei."

It was easy for Iruka to see how nervous Naruto was, knowing him for many years now. He leaned against the door frame. "If it's Anko who's making you nervous, I don't fault you at all."

Anko rolled her eyes. "Please, you are more nervous around me than him. You honestly stutter whenever I try to talk to you."

True to that statement, Iruka sputtered, trying to come up with a reply. Naruto took this chance to rib him some more. "We all know what it means when a boy or a man stutters in front of a girl or a woman, don't we, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka had a light blush on his face now, while Anko gave a mock surprised expression. "Iruka likes me? You don't say!"

Naruto smirked, "Now we know who will marry who in the future."

He winced at the slap to the back of his head. "How about you concentrate on what's going to happen tonight, smartass?"

Naruto nodded as he straightened up. Kurama spoke to him inside.

'**Maybe you should try some of that liquid courage the woman was suggesting.'**

'_I already have to drink in the ceremony, Kurama. Besides, with you inside me, I doubt it will have any effect.'_

'**True that. Still, you should calm down. If it helps you any, your mate is equally nervous.'**

Naruto frowned suspiciously at that._ 'How would you know that?'_

'**One of my abilities is I can sense negative emotions. Just remember, you have no reason to be nervous when you have someone like me with you.'**

Naruto's sarcasm was on point._ 'Thanks, Kurama. I'm so confident now because of your belief in yourself.'_

'**Good, then let's go.'**

It really annoyed Naruto that Kurama could sometimes be blind to his sarcasm. Still, he was right. It was time.

"Right," he said, taking a moment to steel himself. "It's show time."

XXXXXXX

The shrine was full of people when he entered it. The fact that he would have to stand in front of so many people during his ceremony unnerved him a bit, but then Kurama's filtered, yang chakra entered his system and he immediately felt calm. Sending a silent thank you to his friend, he scanned the crowd.

All of his friends were there with their parents, and he gave a small smile on seeing team 7, with Kakashi, standing at the back. Kakashi was standing, in a formal jacket and like he usually did, but this time, the eye smile felt genuine, and that made Naruto happy on the inside. Sakura was energetically waving at him, dressed in a pretty red dress and Sasuke…..

Sasuke was dressed exceptionally and immaculately, he was dressed to impress with his immaculate tux, hair looking combed for once in his life. Naruto could see that Ino was already undressing him with her eyes, and girls of the families that were invited looked torn between looking at him and Sasuke. Sasuke caught his eye and gave a small smirk, raising a glass to him in silent congratulations.

Naruto scoffed, but it warmed him on the inside that Sasuke attended his wedding. If he were allowed to drink right now, he would have raised it back at him. They shared a bond that Naruto could not describe; they were not friends, but at the same time, they were something beyond that. Sure, sometimes he hated the way he acted, but he would hate it if they were to stand on opposite sides.

He let his eyes roamed, purposely not catching the eye of several important figures like clan heads and daimyos alike. He caught Hinata's eyes and had to hide a wince.

She looked very beautiful, but he could see that she was trying really hard not to cry. It must have broken her heart, he thought, because she genuinely seemed to love him, but never got a chance because he loved someone else.

Maybe if she had approached him all those years ago, he would not be standing here right now. Perhaps if Hiashi had brought Neji, he might have been able to console her.

He found Jiraiya, who standing next to Kakashi now, and caught his eye. The man gave a big grin that was simply filled with pride and happiness. Naruto wished he could return the grin, but he was under close scrutiny right now. He settled for a nod and a small smile, but he would hug the death out of the man when the ceremony was over.

He looked to his right and saw jiji on the altar, giving him a wink of assurance. Naruto internally smiled at how he had come to officiate the wedding.

Tsunade should have been standing on the altar because she was the Hokage, but that made no sense to Naruto. He had jokingly commented to her that they should get the Sandaime to officiate, for the man really looked the part of the priest as well.

So it shocked him when Tsunade briefly considered the idea and agreed, saying that sensei would be better at those things.

The music began, and Naruto turned his head, only for his breath to get caught in his throat. Later he would say it was Temari's fault, because it totally was.

She looked absolutely breathtaking in her wedding kimono. The dress fit her figure perfectly, and the makeup was done expertly. Her hair was done beautifully into a bun, a single thick band styled over her right eye. Her lips never looked more delicious before. The blush on her face, coupled with that small grin of anticipation under her veil, made Naruto want to kiss her all over. He smiled back at her, and he could care less if the guests thought that it was wrong of his eyes to be filled with love. Kankuro was escorting his sister, since their father was, you know, dead. And Naruto had to admit, the guy would catch the attention of many girls, if he just didn't apply his "war paint."

Temari stopped beside him, and after Naruto lifted the veil off her ,they both held each other's hands. Jiji took this as a signal to begin the ceremony. Naruto and Temari simply stared in each other's eyes, conveying everything and nothing at the same time.

Before he knew, it was time for them to drink the traditional sake. Naruto reached forward to take a cup, knowing that once this was done with, he and Temari would be married for life. Together, _forever._

He gently held out the cup for her to drink from, with her doing the same to him. The saké burned his throat a little, and Naruto couldn't see why people liked this stuff. It was tolerable at best.

Once they each had drank three cups, he took both of their cups and placed them back on the tray. It was time to say something, and he had prepared _nothing._

"Temari," he hesitated a bit, getting himself together, "Our marriage was supposed to be one of duty. Duty towards our villages. However, we know that it would be so much more than that, for the both of us. We were fortunate to receive a sapling of love, which we both nurtured over the last week. Honestly, I am at a loss of words to express the joy that I'm feeling right now, and it's all because of you."

He could see Temari struggling to hold back her tears. _'Hang in there just a bit longer, hime.'_

He continued, this time with the more traditional vow. "I, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, hereby take you as my wife. I will love you, and cherish you, forever, until death do us apart. May our joining be blessed by Kami-sama and the union of our people."

Temari followed happily with her own vow, and the rush of emotions coursing caused him to momentarily forget what was next. He turned towards jiji and asked with a smile plastered on his face, hiding his panic.

"What is next?"

Jiji mouthed back, "The rings."

Temari felt panic rising in her chest when Naruto's eyes widened in panic, his face blanking out. The he frowned, and to the surprise of the people present, began patting his robes as if searching for the rings. He stopped in the middle of patting his chest, and smiled slyly when he looked at her, looking as if he found it.

Temari covered her confusion with a small laugh. "What?"

To the great surprise of everyone present, Naruto reached behind her right ear with his hand and when he pulled back, he held a box. The crowd gasped at that, because first of all, that was not supposed to happen in an event as big as this. This was supposed to be a wedding strictly adhering to all the proper procedures and protocols.

Yeah, I can say on behalf on Naruto, the people thinking the above could go and chuck themselves into a volcano.

This was Naruto's wedding, and he wanted to make it as memorable as possible.

Second, the first thought that entered into all the shinobis' gathered heads, and a few civilians, was that Naruto used a storage seal. But there was no smoke that followed the unsealing of the ring, so what was that?

While some of the people were thinking Naruto just hid the box in his sleeves, Naruto had just tweaked the storage seal a little so that the smoke that was supposed to be released along with the object was absorbed into another part of the seal.

Naruto opened the box, revealing a beautiful silver ring with a diamond on top. This was the ring his mother had given to him. All though it was used by his father to propose his mother, Naruto wanted to give his own ring to Temari, so he decided that his mother's ring would be given to Temari on their wedding day.

He gently held her hand and slid her ring finger through the ring. His mother's fingers were fuller than Temari's, so Naruto had integrated a seal into the band so it would automatically fit to Temari.

Temari looked up curiously. "I presume you have brought your ring as well?"

Naruto smiled and nodded. He reached into his left sleeve and unsealed the ring. "I knew that you wouldn't have any pockets, and even I don't, but it might be easier for me to carry."

He held out the box for her. She took it and opened it to find the exact same ring as hers. She smiled, and held his hand as she slipped his finger through the ring.

Hiruzen smiled, holding back tears of joy. This was a very emotional moment for him, and a very fortunate one as well. Not many shinobi live until his age, and much less live long enough to see their children or grandchildren married. He counted himself as extremely lucky.

"Now that the rings have been exchanged, I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no sato, hereby declare Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto and Sabaku no Temari as husband and wife. May Kami-sama bless your union, and may your love stand strong forever. You may now, kiss the bride."

Naruto smiled and caught Temari's lips in a soft, but deep, loving lip-lock. The whole crowd stood up, clapping wildly. Naruto broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, both sporting matching blushes on their faces.

They turned towards the crowd and smiled brightly. Naruto saw each one of his friends, looking more happy than he had ever seen. Kiba was cheering him wildly, Shino for once, had a genuine smile on his face that was actually visible. Hinata had tears going down her face, but she looked happy as she gazed at them.

Naruto caught Kakashi just as the man wiped a tear that had slipped from his eye. Sakura's eyes were shining with joy, and Sasuke looked like a completely different person with a soft, but genuine smile on his face as he clapped for the newly wed.

Shikamaru was smiling while clapping softly, but Chouji was outright crying. Ino was just like Sakura, but she was cheering with a bit more energy. Their parents' gazes were melancholic, as if remembering a similar time of their own lives.

Jiraiya looked like he was the proudest man in the entire world. The smile on his face told Naruto just how much the man loved him.

Now that the wedding was over, it was time for the reception, which was being held at the back of their home. Temari hooked her arm with his and they both walked back together.

XXXXXXX

As soon as they were out of the public's sights, Naruto flashed the both of them to their home. They had to change clothes fast, for the guests would be arriving in less than ten minutes.

They managed to change clothes in time, with Naruto setting for a tux of his own while Temari switched for a more comfortable attire.

The guests arrived and as the host, it was his duty to attend to them. Since there were many important political figures from both Konoha and Suna, Naruto and Temari had to attend to almost all of them. It was extremely boring for the both of them, listening to the pointless drivel of old men.

Finally, Naruto had some time to himself when some of Temari's friends from Suna wanted to talk to her, he walked straight to Jiraiya and hugged the man with all his might, catching him by surprise.

Jiraiya's eyes bugged out as all the breath left his body when his godson squeezed it out of him, but he was able to gather himself and return the hug. "Thank you for making this the best day of my life, brat," he whispered in Naruto's ear.

"You're welcome, pervert."

They both laughed and separated. Jiraiya inspected him and whistled. "Damn, you clean up pretty nice in such short time!"

Naruto shrugged modestly. "Dad's jutsu is just so awesome, you know."

Jiraiya nodded, "I know kid, I know."

They both talked a little more, after which Naruto left to find his team. He found them, or more accurately, just Sakura and Kakashi. They both were eating food when Naruto walked up to them.

Sakura's eyes widened and she thrust her plate into an indignant Kakashi's hands as she hugged him tightly. "That was so _beautiful, _Naruto! You and Temari looked extremely dashing and gorgeous!"

Naruto chuckled as he returned her hug. "Glad to know I could rock that kimono as well."

Sakura continued, "You are the first one out of the rookies to get married, you know! How does it feel?"

Naruto laughed and put his hands into his pockets. "It really isn't different from what I feel all the time."

Sakura quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Naruto spread out his arms. "Like I'm ahead of everybody who is our age."

Sakura huffed as she lightly slapped his arm. Naruto turned to Kakashi and smirked. "Nice to see you too, Kakashi."

Giving an eye smile, Kakashi commented in his cheery tone. "You know Naruto, you have too little confidence in me."

"Can you blame me?"

Kakashi actually appeared to think about it. "Perhaps not. Still, you were excellent tonight. I'm proud that you were my team's member, Naruto."

Naruto smiled in gratitude, then frowned. "Where's Sasuke?"

Sakura took back her plate from Kakashi. "I think he's heading back home."

But Naruto was already spreading out his senses, trying to sense the familiar Uchiha signature. He found it heading towards the exit. He frowned, before making his way to him.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke had to admit, the wedding ceremony was very well organized. Seeing Naruto look so happy with Temari made him think back to the fond memories he had of his own family.

He had gone to the reception, but only to say goodbye to Naruto and head back home for some late night training, before turning in. But seeing him talking to so many political figure heads, Sasuke decided it was best if he ate and left. He doubted Naruto would be able to free himself for a while.

He ate separately from Sakura and Kakashi, and after he was finished, he made his way to the exit. Just as he was about to go, a familiar voice behind him spoke out.

"Leaving without a goodbye? I thought clan heirs had better manners than that."

He frowned and turned around to see Naruto, hands in pocket and a smile on his face. "You were busy."

Naruto sighed as if it truly pained him. "Trust me, it's not fun. I wouldn't have talked to them at all if Temari wasn't there."

Sasuke scoffed. "Not even an hour and already whipped by your wife."

"I like to think it as my duty as the clan head."

Naruto was now standing right in front of Sasuke. Curiously, he held out his hand. "Thanks for coming tonight."

Sasuke rose an eyebrow, but did not shake his hand. Naruto chuckled, retracting his hand back. "You really know how to let people down."

He continued. "Still, it's nice to see that you've improved from being the anti-social, emo douchebag of team 7. You're still emo, though."

Sasuke smirked. "And you're still a naïve idiot who thinks we're friends."

Naruto shook his head. "I never said that."

Sasuke shrugged. "Anyways, I just wanted to say goodbye. I'll be heading back now. Good luck on your marriage."

As he was walking away, Naruto called out in a sly tone. "Want me to send a clone with you as an escort? It is dark out, after all."

Sasuke turned back just enough to give a comeback. "I'd like to escort _you _off a cliff sometime."

Naruto snorted. "You can do better than that."

Obviously, Sasuke was cranky to deal with him any longer. "Goodbye, Naruto."

Naruto watched Sasuke till he was out of his sight. As warmed as he was that Sasuke was opening up, ever so slowly, he couldn't shake off the bad feeling that suddenly seemed to have gripped him. For some reason, watching Sasuke walk away gave him a bad feeling.

He shook his head. He was overthinking this. He walked back to the party, and saw that most of the guests were preparing to leave. Naruto couldn't blame them, it was half past eleven. He walked over to his wife, who was talking with Gaara and Kankuro. She spotted him coming and frowned. "Where were you?"

Naruto pointed a thumb behind him. "I was meeting up with my old team. Went to say goodbye to Sasuke after that. I'm kind of surprised he decided to attend our wedding."

Temari tilted her head. "Isn't he the one who you are always calling a douchebag?"

Naruto nodded, ignoring Kankuro's snort. "One and the same."

Gaara then decided to speak up. "We will get going as well. Our stay for tonight is reserved somewhere else. Take care of my sister, Naruto."

Naruto clapped him on his shoulder, giving him a thumbs up. "Don't worry, I will."

After bidding them goodnight, Gaara and Kankuro left. A handful of guests, who were waiting to say goodbye to Naruto, were left. Naruto and Temari bid them good night as well, and when everyone was gone, both of them gave a tired sigh and plopped down on the chairs in the living room.

"Fake smiling all night is really hurting my cheeks," Naruto groaned.

"True that." She took her feet out of the heels, groaning in relief. "That's much better."

Naruto looked outside, and winced at how much clean-up was required. "I'll have my clones clean that up tomorrow. For now, I think it's best if we turn in."

Temari lifted her head to give him a smirk. "You just can't wait, can you?"

Naruto smirked back. "I really don't think you can blame me."

Temari rested her head back. "I'm not getting up on my own."

Naruto quietly snorted as Temari rested on the chair. There was one thing left to do. He got up and walked down to the basement. He walked by the simulation room, towards the stone that maintained the security seals around the house. He cut his thumb and swiped the blood on his right hand, and flashed through a set of seals. He then slammed his palm upon the stone, watching as the seal flashed brightly once, signaling that the security was once again activated. He then walked back up, smiling softly on seeing Temari still on the chair with her eyes closed. He walked quietly towards her, and lifted her heels, taking them to the shoe rack by the door. He removed his own shoes as well, making it easier for him to remain quiet.

An involuntary squeal left her mouth when she was suddenly lifted up, bridal style. Her hands instinctively wrapped around Naruto's neck, who was grinning wickedly.

"This is not the place to fall asleep, nor the time. There is still one thing left for us to do!"

Temari sighed as she shuffled in his arms to be a bit more comfortable. "I am almost jealous of how much energy you always seem to have."

"It works in your favor tonight. Now let's go, I _need _to ravish my wife!"

Temari's giggles sounded through the house, before the door to the master bedroom was shut.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke made it back to his compound after twenty five minutes of walking. It was, like every moment of every day, lifeless. As he passed by an abandoned store, he stopped.

Something felt….._out of place._

He jumped onto the roof top of the store, coming face to face with a group of four. Three males and a female, all in varying, but similar battle attire. Most notable feature of the attire, that Sasuke _definitely _remembered seeing before, was the thick, purple rope tied behind them in a bow. What was gross, however, was the pale, grey-haired boy with dark blue lipstick (Why would _anyone _want to wear that?!) and a _second head _behind him and the dark, tan boy with _three sets _of arms.

'_Orochimaru's people, huh? They definitely have the skill to gross people out down, I'll give them that.'_

"Who are you guys?" He asked in a tone that was just shy of sounding bored.

The tan boy smirked and came at him, but Sasuke jumped over him easily, even in his tux. The two headed guy appeared behind him to try and punch Sasuke, but Sasuke kicked back sharply, sending the guy crashing into a wall. Getting behind his first opponent, Sasuke steadied himself to deal with the big-boned guy coming to land a solid punch. He just flipped him and the tanned boy, the two bodies flying towards the other two. They all crash into each other, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke scoffed and turned around to see the four looking completely unruffled, but on another building. He brushed imaginary dust off his shoulder. "Is that the best you can do?"

The two headed guy sneered at him. "Quit your babbling, you weakling. Come over here so I can slap the _bitch _out of you!"

Sasuke adopted a mock thinking pose. "I know that pedophile talk. Orochimaru sent you guys, right? Pale as toothpaste, goes after young boys, and gives a totally fake laugh?"

The guy snarled and took a step forward, but was stopped by the redhead. "We didn't come here to test him. Orochimaru-sama has already done that."

The guy just snorted in disgust. "What does Orochimaru-sama need this weak guy for? Regardless….you will never be strong if you stay at Konoha. Mediocre at best, but you will never be able to match your blonde friend."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but waited for them to say more. The redhead continued, while looking at him as if he was barely worth her time. "Orochimaru-sama said that you were obsessed with killing your brother. He would be so surprised to be _wrong._

"I thought that you would be training your ass off to get stronger, but here you are, attending social functions like weddings," she spat the word as if it were a curse, "content to let your blonde friend be ahead of you while you remain behind."

"It's almost as if you have forgotten what you train for."

Those words struck Sasuke like thunder. He showed no outward reaction, but he was shaken up on the inside. The redhead continued, "Come with us. If you do, Orochimaru-sama will give you power!"

Sasuke was pretty sure that Naruto would have made a pedophile joke, if he were here. But he was not, and Sasuke's mind focused on a single question: Had he really gotten so soft, that he had lost the sight of his life goal?

Then again, he wasn't satisfied with how he was being trained. Kakashi didn't seem to care much most of the time. If Orochimaru was offering to train him, should he refuse or not?

His mind flashed back to the talk he had with Naruto in the hospital room. If he left the village, a kill-on-sight order would be placed on his head, and it would most likely be Naruto who would pursue him. Still, was he ready to leave everything behind?

The two headed guy interrupted his thought process. "We know that the curse mark has been bothering you, even if it is sealed." That surprised Sasuke, though he kept a tight rein on his facial muscles. "The more you hold it back, the more it will drive you insane. If you come with us, Orochimaru-sama will teach you to control it, harness that power."

The offer was looking worth taking every second that asshole spoke. Sasuke was still a bit unsure though. Before he could think more, the redhead spoke up again. "You either choose to come with us to Orochimaru-sama, the path of power, or you choose to remain in the village that is holding you back on purpose? Holding you back from achieving your goal….Uchiha Itachi."

And just like that, they were gone.

Sasuke stood on the roof, finally getting some time to think. He could leave the village, but one person came to the forefront of his mind.

Naruto.

He was perhaps the only guy in the whole village that Sasuke could hold a decent conversation with. Even though Sasuke never openly admitted it, he considered Naruto a friend. Perhaps his only friend in the entire village. Not only that, but Naruto had this….ability, to make Sasuke feel bad about some of his decisions. It was clear even on the D-ranks they had been on.

He felt he could talk to him more about things than he ever could with any other person, even if he never did that. Naruto put him at ease somewhat, but at the same time, Sasuke felt jealous of him. Naruto was everything Sasuke was not. The most important of that being, Naruto was powerful.

Sasuke was not.

Sasuke was aware that by the time he reached to the level where Naruto was right now, Naruto would have jumped to a whole new level. He was growing stronger too fast, and Sasuke was afraid that he all he would be doing his entire life was play catch up with him.

He needed to get stronger, faster than what he was getting in Konoha. And the redhead must have been right about the village holding him back on purpose. After what happened with Itachi, they would keep a more careful watch on him. Kakashi was never to inclined to train him unless it was a good day, which was very rare.

His bonds would only hold him back.

He would never be able to kill Itachi at the rate he was getting stronger.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he started walking back to his house. But his walk was different this time.

It held a purpose.

'_Naruto….I'm sorry.'_

**AN: Hey guys, I hope you liked the chapter. I did not forget about Anko and Iruka, and tried to incorporate them as best as I could. I also hope that I could explain why Sasuke chose to leave.**

**I'm really not sure though, if I was able to explain what I really wanted, about the bond that Sasuke and Naruto share. They are friends, but at the same time, they are not. Some, or most of you would be expecting this, but those who weren't, I'm sorry. This is how it was supposed to go. If Sasuke didn't leave, this story would never move forward. Stay tuned for what would happen.**

**On another note, I wanted to invite you guys to read a new story that I've started on ao3. Those who are interested in reading about spiderman, please do visit and leave a comment and a kudos. If you're afraid that this would be a regular Peter and Tony, you are **_**dead wrong.**_

**Also, the good news that I talked about earlier? Here it is.**

**I've come to a decision:-**

**Return of the Flash- Shippuden is a go.**


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 27

**AN: Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, guys! They were really a breath of fresh air for me. Also, I apologize for the delay, but I had to figure out how to properly write this chapter. I had to mentally revise the order of events, what event I'll be writing about and all that. **

**On another note, this is my first lemon. So I'll apologize in advance if it's not that good. Please go easy on the criticisms.**

**Also, please excuse me for the holes that this chapter might have. I still have a bit of difficulty in comprehending this particular portion of the arc.**

**I have some news as well. This story….is nearing its end. I'll be able to finish it in another three to four chapters. After that, I'll be on a break, so I could plan for Shippuden. It's really long, so I'll need time to figure out how to write events in that, specifically **_**what **_**events to write about. Any help in that regard is welcome. Onto the story!**

Naruto felt himself grinning in anticipation as he carried a giggling Temari to the master bedroom. _Their bedroom. _This was _their night._

The door was already open as he walked in, using his foot to close it. He set Temari down on her feet, wrapping his arms around her waist. She in turn, wrapped her own arms around his neck, gazing at him with such love that Naruto couldn't help but return with a smile.

The acceptance of the thought that they were _married_ was still settling in. They were together, until they died. Nothing could separate them.

The room was dark, except for the light from the lamps. Perfect.

**Lemon**

Deciding to start off the night's final event, Naruto leaned down a bit, capturing Temari's lips with his own. They had kissed many times by now, but he knew that both of them could tell that this one was different from them all.

The kiss was soft, as he gently caressed her upper lips with his mouth. He wanted this night to be their most special night. He wanted to make this last as long as he possibly could. Temari's one hand unwrapped from his neck to rest on his left cheek, her left leg coming out of the slit on the side of her dress, lifting to rest at his hip.

Temari had worn a very beautiful, deep blue, sleeveless gown for the reception. It wasn't too revealing, but it modestly showed off what she had. Her creamy, long legs were slightly revealed by the slits on the side, with the gown having a V-cut for her chest. It hugged her figure quite amazingly.

Naruto was fully convinced that no girl was more beautiful than his wife.

Naruto's right hand went down from Temari's waist to support her leg. His hand came to rest on the underside of her thigh, allowing Temari to rest it there. At the same time, her breath hitched as Naruto lightly roamed his hand back and forth.

"You are wearing too much for this night," said Temari in a sultry voice as she easily unbuttoned his suit jacket and smoothly slid it off him, leaving him in his shirt and pants.

"I think I'm making this too easy for you," Naruto teased as he bent his face further down to capture Temari's neck, beginning a series of love bites that caused Temari to start giving those delightfully, pleasurable moans. The movement of her fingers, which was smooth before, started to get erratic because of Naruto's switch of contact. Her fingers fumbled for the buttons of his shirt, never mind the bow tie on his neck.

She could feel Naruto smirking in triumph as he continued to lay kisses on her neck, going to lightly suck on her pulse point. That stopped Temari's fingers complete for a few moments as her hands contemplated whether to hold his head in place or to take off his shirt so that she could feel those abs of his.

They decided to meet in the middle ground.

Her right hand wrapped around his head, while her left went flat against his shirt for one moment. Then, molding a bit of chakra, she grabbed it into a fist and tore it right off, causing Naruto to pull back in surprise.

"You tore off my shirt?" There was actually very little surprise in his voice, as if he was not completely surprised.

"It's not as if you'll be wearing it a second time," Temari replied before attacking his lips again. Naruto shivered at the contact of her hand against her stomach. Not the one to be outdone, he moved his hand to her shoulders.

"Then I guess I should even the odds a bit." With that, he gently slid off the shoulder straps of her gown, causing the dress to drop down to her hips. Naruto applied a little bit of force to slide it down her hips, causing it to reveal her legs completely, pooling around her ankles.

Temari broke off the kiss, her face red from the activity. A smirk forming on her face, she bent down until she was on her knees, and directly in front of Naruto's cock.

Naruto's heartbeat quickened, him knowing exactly what Temari intended to do. He watched in slight awe and anticipation as Temari deftly opened his pants, causing them to slide down, leaving Naruto in his boxers. A large tent had already formed on the inside, and looked as if it would tear through his boxers any moment.

"That looks really uncomfortable," Temari commented as she slowly pumped him through his boxers. Naruto bit his lip to hold a groan, but his hips automatically went forward, desperate for more of Temari's contact.

Slowly, Temari pulled the boxers down, smiling widely at the large cock that sprung forward, free from its grasp. The veins on it were visible, and it was pulsating lightly. All ten inches of it. Temari began to get wet herself as she kept pumping him.

"I'm so glad that you are mine now," was all Temari said before she took it in her mouth, without any warning. Naruto gasped, the sensation being so new and yet so satisfying, at the same time giving him pleasure unlike anything he had ever felt before. If this was what sex entailed, he was going to get badly addicted.

Temari was new to this, so she was going entirely on instinct. This was the first time she was giving a blowjob to Naruto, and it was a feeling like nothing she had ever felt before. Of course, his cock was big enough that she barely went an inch past the head. She jacked him off at the same time she sucked on the head of his cock. She was blushing madly as she bobbed her head up and down. She used one hand to grip his hip to use as support.

Naruto's breathing had gotten quicker as he watched Temari suck his cock like it was a lollipop. His hands came to rest on her head as they untied the single ponytail Temari had worn for tonight. Her hair dropped to the middle of her upper back, and she looked just as beautiful as she always did. His hands buried themselves in the mass of her hair, holding her head in place as he lightly pumped in and out of her mouth, taking care that he did not go too deep.

After about ten minutes, Naruto felt that he was nearing his release. "Temari, I'm close….."

To his surprise, Temari did not let go of his cock. Instead, she only jacked him off faster and sucked him, creating even more vacuum in her mouth. "Fuck! I'm cumming!"

Temari's eyes widened as thick ropes of Naruto's cum shot into her mouth. It was a little sticky, and to her pleasant surprise, quite tasty. There was something about its taste that was just uniquely Naruto.

She gulped it down as fast she could, but after four gulps, it was just too much for her. She took the cock out of her mouth, and just closed her eyes in pleasure as the cum was splattered on her chest. There wasn't much remaining, but it was beyond Temari's limit….for now.

Naruto panted heavily as he stopped cumming. That was perhaps the best release he had ever gotten. He watched with delight as Temari gulped down his sperm, until she couldn't and just let it splatter against her heaving chest. He decided that he liked Temari covered with his cum.

She looked so _unbelievably_ sexy.

Temari got up from her knees, wiping her mouth with her hands, leaving a smirk in the place. "Not bad for the first time, huh?"

Then, as if Naruto wasn't even in the room, she looked down at her chest, seeing her black bra covered with thick, white cum. Without a second thought, she reached behind and snapped the bra open, leaving it to fall at her feet, exposing her breasts. Looking up at a stunned Naruto, she shrugged, as if it was no big deal, "Can't wear dirty clothes now, can I?"

She was unprepared for Naruto to lunge at her like a wild animal, eyes filled with hunger. "You are doing that on purpose, aren't you?"

Without even waiting for her reply, he lifted her up, causing her to instinctively wrap her legs around him to keep from falling. He carried her to the bed and got on it on his knees, placing her down on her back. Temari only giggled as she ran her hands through his hair.

Naruto just gazed at her, as if trying to put her on fire. Temari shivered; she was definitely feeling some of that heat in her. She shivered in anticipation as she felt his hands drifting downwards, towards her panties. His voice was sounding erotic and sexy by now."It's not fair if I'm the only one naked, is it?"

He grasped the strings on the side of her hips, and slowly pulled them down, exposing her glistening, wet pussy. Temari shivered as Naruto's breath hit her in her most private area.

"I like keeping things balanced, so how about I return your favor?"

He spread her legs so he could have much easier access to Temari's womanhood. He slid two fingers inside her folds, her whimper only motivating him. He rubbed his fingers against her inner walls, only serving to raise her arousal further. He marveled at how tight she felt on the inside as he rubbed his fingers against her walls to draw moans of lust and pleasure from her. He bent down and experimentally licked the folds, just to see Temari's reaction.

Temari cried out with pleasure as her back arched. Her face was flushed and eyes closed, her hands stimulating the arousal by rubbing her erect nipples. Seeing her reaction, Naruto grinned and plunged tongue first into her pussy.

"Aaargh!"

The cry only spurred Naruto further as he gripped Temari's smooth and deliciously firm ass for leverage. He licked like the nectar of the gods of ramen was dripping from the pussy, and didn't let one drop go to waste. He lapped up her juices like a dog dying of thirst.

Temari's world was on fire as the pleasure reached to unimaginable heights. She maneuvered her legs onto Naruto's back, clenching him lovingly. Her fingers weaved through his golden blonde hair, pulling him closer to her, raising her hips for more pleasure. She didn't know about Naruto, but she was almost breathless. Her chest was heaving up and down, trying to draw deep breaths. His tongue moved faster inside her, eating her out like a sweet cake only reserved for him, which only served to draw her orgasm near.

"I'M CUMMING!"

She came with a scream, and cum she did. Naruto eagerly drank her release, finding the taste to be sweet and delectable. Temari was recovering when Naruto got up, licking his lips with a satisfactory smack. "That was a tasty treat."

He leaned down to Temari's neck, peppering it with small kisses. Temari tilted her head to give him more access. "Now that we are done with the starters, are you ready for the main course?"

Naruto's cock, which was still erect, and more, had grown one inch more due Temari's wonderful blowjob. It rubbed back and forth against Temari's clit, drawing a small moan from her. Naruto gave her a chaste kiss, as if trying to reassure her. His finger lit up with chakra as he moved it onto Temari's stomach, writing a seal. "Anti-pregnancy seal," he told her, "Don't want to get you pregnant with my kids just yet."

Temari gave a nod in understanding. Still, the thought of getting pregnant was exciting, but frightening.

The head of his cock rubbed against her pussy a few more times, before Naruto slowly slid it inside. Both of them gasped out loud for different reasons; Naruto, because Temari's walls had clamped tightly around his cock, giving him a pleasure that was simply indescribable. Temari, because Naruto was just so _fucking huge!_

Inch by inch, he slid inside until he met a barrier. His eyes met a nervous teal pair, but Temari nodded slowly. Without saying anything, Naruto pushed himself in forcefully, slamming his hips into hers and burying himself into her to the hilt. Temari cried out in pain, clutching Naruto's shoulders tightly as a few drops of blood dripped onto the sheet.

"It hurts, Naruto….." Temari whimpered as a few tears escaped from her eyes.

"It'll be alright in a few moments, Temari. Just bear with me," Naruto pleaded as he caught his lips with hers. He held still for a few moments as Temari acclimated to the pain of losing her virginity. Temari experimentally rolled her hips a little, moaning at the pleasure she now felt in place of pain. "You can move now, Naruto. But take it slow, please."

Naruto nodded as he pulled his head out and buried himself again, halfway this time. Repeating the motion a few times, Naruto found a nice, slow rhythm for himself. Temari's small winces of the remaining pain slowly faded away, now replaced by gasps and moans of sensual pleasure.

"Go deeper, Naruto."

Naruto smiled and leaned down to capture her lips, obliging her by going a bit more deeper while maintaining his rhythm. He picked up his pace when Temari started responding to the lip-lock. He grunted and groaned in pleasure as their hips slammed together.

"You're so tight, Temari!" He grunted between his thrusts. The sensation of her walls squeezing him every time he went in was just amazing. Temari pulled him closer by locking her legs behind his back, held in place by Naruto's hands on either side of her.

Temari couldn't believe just how great it felt. "You're! _Huge! _Naruto!"

Each word was said simultaneously with a thrust.

Naruto's rhythm reached a new height as he moved like a piston, in and out of her. Temari's moans were almost constant now, slowly increasing in volume. He glanced down to where the action was happening, seeing his cock shining from being covered in her juices. Temari's breasts were jiggling from the force Naruto was using to thrust inside her. After a short while, he felt himself getting close to his release.

"I'm close, Temari," he grunted as he increased his pace to maximum, feeling her walls clenching around him.

It was a miracle that Temari was able to reply to him. "Me! Too! Keep going!"

Naruto grunted as he fully buried himself inside of her, her walls clenching him so tightly that he couldn't keep in the groan. He bit down on her shoulder, increasing body contact. He exploded inside her, his wife gasping at the hotness that filled her up on the inside. Yet, Temari ensured that her pussy milked every drop of the obscene amount of seed that he released. Naruto also made sure on his end that not one drop escaped from her pussy. He kept cumming for a whole 20 seconds after which he completely dropped onto her, breathing heavily. His head was buried in her neck, nuzzling her lovingly, licking the spot where he left his mark.

"I love you," Naruto panted as he lifted up and gazed into her eyes.

Temari smiled tiredly and kissed him softly. "I love you too."

Naruto pulled out of her, and to Temari's surprise, he was still hard as he was in the beginning. Naruto looked up at her with a smile, "You up for another round?"

**Lemon end**

Temari dropped onto Naruto after an exhausting round, her juices spilling down his cock, mixed with his cum. Her stomach was a tiny bit bloated with how much of his cum Naruto had filled her with. She laid on his chest tiredly. "Where does all that come from? I have never felt so full before."

Naruto, who was equally as exhausted as his wife, chuckled as he ran her hand through her hair. "Let's just say I have good genes and leave it at that."

He was still buried inside her, though he was softening steadily. Still, he himself was surprised with just how much he was able to release. The feeling of satisfaction when he released into Temari was something that transcended elation. Naruto wasn't even sure satisfaction covered it or not.

Regardless, it was time to sleep.

He pulled out of her slowly, allowing some amount of juices to spill out, but neither of them cared enough. They were too tired for that. He pulled the covers over them as Temari snuggled into his side, already halfway asleep.

Naruto turned off the lamp and just pulled Temari closer, his sexual appetite over for the night.

"Best. Night. Ever." He whispered before falling asleep with a wide smile.

He was completely unaware of what was happening outside, in the village.

XXXXXXX

Sakura honestly did not know why she was roaming the streets of the village this late at night. She tried to convince herself that it was simply because she was in a good mood after her teammate's wedding, that she simply wanted to watch the stars, but that was not to be.

Something was seriously wrong.

That feeling was instinct, it was a gut feeling. Perhaps because she was a ninja, that feeling would be honed over time, but today it was acting up. Roaming the empty streets, she didn't know what she was looking for. Perhaps it was because-

"I didn't know you took late night walks, Sakura."

Sakura turned around with a look of total shock on her face upon hearing the familiar voice. There was Sasuke, dressed in his genin clothes sans hitai-ate, and a backpack on. Narrowing her eyes at him, she replied in a suspicious tone. "I could say the same about you."

Then a stray thought flew into her head, and the possibility was too big to not be questioned about. "Genin don't go on solo missions, and I don't see Kakashi-sensei. Tell me Sasuke. Where are you going?"

"Stay out of my business, Sakura."

Sakura bit back a gasp at his reply. Sasuke hadn't been this cold, this uncaring since the beginning of their days as team 7. It had gotten easier to hear _some _emotion in his voice since he and Naruto became…well, she wouldn't call it friendship, but they _definitely _had some sort of a bond. He had even smiled at the wedding and the reception tonight, and he looked genuinely happy for Naruto. Now that she looked at him, it seemed his walls of loneliness were back.

"It _is _my business when my teammate is about to become a missing-nin." Sakura snarled at him, shaking off her momentary shock just in time to see Sasuke walking past her. Her hand shot up to grab his bicep with a bruising grip, spinning him around with all her strength.

"Don't do this, Sasuke. Leaving us now would mean giving up all the bonds that we have worked so hard to forge with you! The bonds that Naruto has worked to forge with you! I know you care for him Sasuke, _(even if you don't care for me)_ so try to understand that this isn't worth it at all!"

Sasuke looked at her with uncaring eyes. "I did start to think that working with you and Kakashi…..working with Naruto…..that was my way. But then I remembered what my life's goal is. And I would take whatever path is needed to achieve that goal."

Sakura grit her teeth. "Revenge won't make anyone happy, least of all you!" She hated the feeling of desperation that crawled up her spine. Even though she had progressed, she doubted she would be able to hold Sasuke here. He was in a league of his own, along with Naruto.

Sasuke's reply was blunt and crushing. "Revenge is what I have chosen."

"Then let us help you achieve it! You don't have to be alone in your pursuit! You, me…Naruto, we can help you find your happiness!"

By now, tears were spilling from her eyes. "Maybe it's just a leftover from my fangirl days, but…I don't want the person I love to go out into the cold world, and become even colder. I want to be your happiness, Sasuke. I love you so much."

Sasuke scowled at her. "You are _really _annoying."

Sakura ignored the sting of hurt that came from his statement. She pulled back her arm and threw a punch with all her strength, aiming to knock him out.

Of course, Sasuke saw that coming from miles away. Having trained with Naruto, Sakura was a snail to his speed. He easily dodged the punch and used his speed to get behind her.

"Goodbye, Sakura."

That was the last thing she heard before her world went black.

XXXXXXX

Naruto honestly had the best sleep in his entire, 13-year old life. Here he was, spooning his wife in their bed, after some intense love-making last night. Of course, his rate of recovery was something that very few people could hope to match.

Actually, scratch that. No one could match his rate of recovery. He was the one who had the strongest of the bijuu inside him, not anybody else.

Which was why, he found his eyes fluttering open at five-thirty in the morning, arms around Temari, whose back was resting against his chest, back to full energy. She was sleeping peacefully, tired because of the activities of last night. Strangely, Naruto actually felt proud of tiring her out.

Now, he just held Temari close to him as he closed his eyes.

Nothing could ruin this moment….

_Ding dong!_

Of course, he just _had _to jinx it by thinking about it. He checked his wife, relieved that she was still sleeping. He slowly disentangled himself from her, careful not to wake her.

Spreading out his senses, he was surprised to find the familiar, yin-laced chakra signature of Shikamaru. He soundlessly walked out of the room, without waking his wife. It was only when he reached the front door that he realized that he was buck naked. He hastily formed a half ram seal, transforming some clothes onto him.

Opening the door, he raised an eyebrow when he saw Shikamaru decked out in his chunin uniform, with a serious expression that was rarely seen on his face. It was obvious that Shikamaru was not on a social visit, so Naruto got straight to the point. "What's the problem?"

"Sasuke's gone."

If there was even the smallest amount of sleep remaining inside him, it was wiped out by the news that was delivered. "Are you saying he left the village?"

Shikamaru nodded, "I checked his house, and there were no signs of struggle. Sakura was also found knocked out on a bench on one of the roads. He left on his own free will."

A small amount of hurt grew inside Naruto. _'Why would you leave, Sasuke?'_

He was careful not to let it show on his face. He forced rational thought into his head. "When did he leave?"

"Sometime in the early morning. Tsunade-sama sent me to get you for an emergency retrieval mission."

Naruto nodded sharply. "I'll meet you in her office in five minutes."

He shut the door gently and briskly walked to his bedroom. If Sasuke left on his own free will…..

He shook his head as he entered his room. He wanted answers from the source. He had warned Sasuke on what would happen if he were to leave the village, and he had thought that Sasuke had understood. He had thought that he and Sasuke had an understanding between themselves.

Guess he was wrong.

He washed his face and was about to dress up, when a shuffling of sheets from behind him caught his attention as he turned and found Temari waking up, giving him eyes that were barely open. "What is it, Naruto?"

Naruto smiled and simultaneously cursed himself for not having a camera, for his wife looked _absolutely adorable _right now. Buried in sheets, hair in disarray and rubbing her sleep laden eyes with her hand. Even her voice sounded like that of a child being forced to wake up.

"Sorry for waking you Temari," he said while putting on his arm bands, "but there is an emergency. Baa-chan has called me in."

Now she looked annoyed. "Right after our wedding night?"

He gave her a look of apology. "Seems like it. If it makes you feel better, the emergency is big enough to warrant my presence."

Holding the sheet to cover her chest, she asked. "What is it anyway?"

He zipped up his jonin jacket. "Uchiha Sasuke has left the village."

She wasn't immediately alarmed like him, but she woke up a little bit more. "He is your friend, isn't he?"

He had tied his hitai-ate around his bangs by now. "I thought so. Now, he is a potentially dangerous missing-nin."

He walked to Temari and sat down by her side. Taking her hand in his, he said, "I'm sorry, but I really have to go."

Temari sighed. "Why can't someone else go? Why were you specifically called? Why not some other jonin?"

"I don't know, Temari. But I have to obey the Hokage's summons," Naruto explained.

Temari frowned in worry, "I don't like this, our first morning as husband and wife being interrupted, but go."

Naruto smiled. "I'll make it up to you." He stole a quick kiss and was gone in a flash.

Naruto reappeared outside the office, just as Shikamaru was walking up to the door. He grumbled as he reached Naruto, "I wish I could do that jutsu. I wouldn't have to walk anywhere after that."

Naruto snorted beside him. "I doubt you would have chakra to spare."

He knocked the door, and after hearing the permission to enter, they both went inside to see Tsunade, sitting behind the desk, looking as if no one had asked her to get up at five in the morning.

Naruto cut straight to the chase. "What happened? He actually left on his own free will?"

Tsunade nodded, face grave and eyes blazing. "Yes….Sakura was found knocked out on a bench by the main road. She tried to stop Sasuke but he overpowered her. She told the nearest ninja upon waking. We believe he was enticed to by Orochimaru, or one of his shinobis."

"How could a guy like Orochimaru ent-"

"Shikamaru!" Naruto glared at his friend, shutting him up. "That is not the priority at the moment. Our first and foremost objective right now is to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke."

He turned to Tsunade. "I request a team of chunin and jonin for this mission."

Tsunade's face turned regretful. "Sorry Naruto, but I can't grant that request."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"We only have the bare minimum jonin here to protect the village, all the rest being sent out on missions. You'll only have to do with genin."

Naruto crossed his arms. "I presume I stayed because of my wedding?"

Tsunade nodded. "That is correct. Now, I'll give you the only thing I can at the moment. You have the freedom to choose your teammates for this particular mission. As the only jonin on this team, you are the team leader, Naruto."

Naruto nodded and turned to Shikamaru. "If we're going to have to do with genin, we best hurry to round every tough guy among the remaining rookies." _Which is sadly, only one. The other one is a pretender, and the last one is a cookie, quite literally._

Shikamaru nodded, "I think I know what you mean. I'll get started right away."

As he turned to leave, Naruto told him one last thing. "You have ten minutes to assemble who you can, Shika. I'm appointing you my vice-team leader. As soon as you assemble everyone, you start on your pursuit. I'll catch up."

Shikamaru's eyes widened, "Wait, what do you-"

"That's an order, Shikamaru."

In a frustrated growl, Shikamaru asked him. "How the hell am I supposed to assemble who I have in mind in just ten minutes?!"

Wordlessly, seven of Naruto's shadow clones popped around them. One of them grabbed Shikamaru, and all of them disappeared in a flash as one.

Naruto turned to Tsunade with a frown. "What is going on? I saw Kakashi last night! Why can't he accompany us?"

Tsunade shook her head, "Kakashi has gone for a mission outside the village. You don't know because he went in the early hours of the morning. He was supposed to leave in the evening, but I only allowed him to stay because you invited him to your wedding."

Naruto bit back a curse at that. He took a deep breath and relaxed. "Okay. You want _genin, _to go on an A-rank, _possibly S-rank _mission?! You'll be sending them to their deaths!"

"What choice do I have Naruto?!" Tsunade snapped back in frustration.

Naruto glared at her, before bowing his head in thought. Lifting it up, he whispered her one question. "How do you want to bring him back?"

"What do you mean?"

Naruto asked the question. "In what condition do you want me to bring him back?"

Tsunade took a deep breath. "I would tell you to get him back alive, if possible. But since this is Orochimaru we are talking about here, I want you to bring him back in _any way _you can! We _cannot _risk Orochimaru getting the sharingan!"

Her eyes were hard, and Naruto understood the meaning behind her choice of words. Sasuke was to be brought back under any condition, whether it be alive, or _dead._

His teeth gritted. "If I am doing this, I _want_ back up. I'm not risking my team like this!"

Tsunade stood up in a fury, sending her chair skidding back. "I told you, I don't have shinobi to spare for this mission!"

Naruto tilted his head, "Maybe you don't," a smirk graced his face, "but our new allies do."

XXXXXXX

Shikamaru was in a bind. After Naruto had basically told him to scram, and if that was not enough, sent him off with his clones as help to gather up whatever team he had in his mind. At first he was annoyed, but when he asked a clone that why couldn't they just flash to Sasuke and retrieve him, the clone had, in all seriousness, informed him that Sasuke didn't have the FTG mark, which meant Hiraishin was out of question.

Without wasting time, he had sent one clone each to get Chouji, Kiba and Neji. He told the rest to dispel themselves. Shikamaru couldn't get Shino, as the guy was on a special mission with his father. They could have really used his chakra-absorbing bugs' help. Lee would have been a great addition to the team, however, he was still recovering from the surgery to put his limbs back together.

However, Shikamaru wanted to pull his hair out when the clone that was sent to get Chouji said that the Akimichi had come down with a case of food poisoning, and as such, won't be able to join the team.

They were literally down to a four-man cell now, just like they had started their ninja careers.

After putting together a plan of pursuit, they had set off…..and even caught up to the sound four. Shikamaru's plan had worked…to a point. They had managed to trap one of them with the shadow possession jutsu. Unfortunately, the sound four seemed to have planned for that, which shocked Shikamaru to the core. They had greatly underestimated their opponents, and now they were stuck inside an earth dome prison, the fat guy named Jirobo holding it from outside and sucking up their chakra through the walls.

Kiba yelled in frustration, his claws digging into his hair.. "Damn it! The longer we stay inside, the more chakra that bastard is taking from us!"

It _sucked, _and the unintentional puns were not helping.

Neji tried to remain rational and decisive. "There must be some sort of weakness, that we must find quickly," he muttered quietly, but the frustration was clear in his voice. What weakness?!

They had been inside for almost fifteen minutes, and Shikamaru couldn't risk getting any more of their chakra drained. He took a deep breath, "Let's-"

Whatever he was about to say, it was interrupted by a thundering crack on one spot of the dome, as if something had been smashed with brutal force on it. They all tensed up as the prison started rumbling, and eventually, the walls fell around them. Only to reveal….

They all relaxed slightly upon seeing Jirobo facing them, a blank look on his face, the forehead of which having the beginnings of a nasty bruise and small rivers of blood. The most significant thing, however, that caused Akamaru to whimper slightly, was the blade that was sticking out from in front the sound nin's throat.

It was clear to everyone that Jirobo was a dead man standing.

The blade slid back, and Jirobo fell on his knees, followed by his upper body, his face kissing the ground rather ungracefully. They all looked up to see eyes that were cold as ice, and sharp as a sword, the anger simmering in them like boiling lava in a volcano.

"N-Naruto?!"

Kiba cried out in shock as he saw Naruto kill the nin without an ounce of remorse on his face. "H-How did you-"

"I didn't give him a chance to prepare," Naruto cut him off. "As soon as I sensed him, I used body flicker to get right to him and shoved the blade in his throat. The asshole was too absorbed in his monologue to see me coming."

The nonchalant way he spoke about killing Jirobo was extremely unnerving, causing everyone except Shikamaru, to question whether Naruto was a closet psychopathic killer.

Kiba's face turned into a snarl, "We might have had an easier time if you had gotten here earlier!"

But Naruto was already walking past him. "I needed to ensure that we at least had some back up. I'm not going to get you all killed because there was a shortage of shinobi in the village. Now come on! We're losing precious time and distance!"

He started running, and the others assumed a formation that Naruto guessed was Shikamaru's idea. The said chunin caught up until they were side by side. "Naruto, there's something you need to know."

Taking his silence as Naruto listening, he continued, "They have Sasuke in a coffin….sort of. We believe him to be still alive, otherwise it would make no sense for them to kill him. There are three others we will probably have to face, and the number of opponents might include Sasuke, if the guy really _did _go willingly," he reported, grumbling the last bit.

"You don't need to worry about Sasuke. I'll take him on if it comes to that," Naruto assured him. Shikamaru nodded at that. Naruto was probably, no, _the _only one in their team who could stop Sasuke.

Naruto continued speaking, in a loud voice so others could hear him. "The lack of traps suggests that they expected the lot of you to be handled by the fat guy, which means we have a slight advantage, if only slight."

Kiba asked him in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"The element of surprise. They won't be expecting us to catch up to them this quickly, so we have a bit of time to come up with a plan. Not much though, so we better hurry," Naruto advised as they leapt through the trees.

It was clear to Shikamaru that Naruto was using his sensing abilities to track the remaining three nin, so the planning was left up to him. He was able to come up with a plan, but before he could tell it to his teammates and Naruto, the latter suddenly stopped, holding up a fist as a sign to stop all of them.

Each team member froze on the tree on which they had landed, not making a sound so as to listen to what Naruto was listening to. Naruto's danger sense had buzzed suddenly, which is why he had stopped. There had to be a trap, or worse, one of the members had stayed behind just in case the fat guy had failed.

They had planned this very impressively.

Naruto's keen eyes roamed around the trees, trying to spot anything that might be out of the ordinary. His extra-sensitive nose picked up a very, _very _faint smell of vinegar, but Naruto could not make any association of it to the mission. His eyes and ears were unable to pick up anything.

"Neji!"

The sharp whisper caused the said person to perk up. "Look ahead and tell me if we're heading into a trap or not."

Neji nodded and silently activated his byakugan, his eyesight going beyond of what normal eyes were capable off. The veins around his eyes became prominent as his eyes did their work. "There seems to be one of them standing on a branch 500 meters ahead of us. And he has six arms as well."

Naruto smirked faintly, "Six arms, huh? Not something we see every day."

He turned back, "I am sending a batch of clones to scout. They will travel 200 meters ahead of us, disguised as us. We will follow them, out of sight. Since we don't know the full scope of his abilities, we will engage as soon as he is occupied with the clones. Is that clear?"

After they organized themselves in a formation, Naruto sent a batch of clones disguised as the team ahead of them, while they discreetly followed behind. Just as Neji said, the clones were attacked by the sound nin as soon as they were in front of him. Out of sight, the team watched with disgusted fascination as the sound nin, spun spider webs from his mouth and trapped the clones.

Spinning a different type of web, a more hardened type, he was about to finish off the clones, when Naruto gave the signal to engage. Even though he was surprised, he adapted to the situation very quickly, realizing that the ones he had trapped were only clones. With a brutal maneuver of his webs, that told Naruto that they were dealing with no amateur here, he snapped all the clones out of existence. He managed to dodge Kiba's fang attack just in time, spinning a web that hung up the Inuzuka duo.

Naruto created six clones to distract the now known Kidomaru, who trapped them in another of his webs. Smirking in a feral way, he said, "Let's see which one of you is real!"

The real Naruto, who had body flickered up high, smirked as he saw Neji advancing silently behind the web weaver. However, before his strike to connect, Kidomaru manage to spot him and dropped down, neatly dodging the strike.

Quickly weaving a dense web, he trapped Neji into a cocoon. "My webs are strong enough to hold down elephants with ease. You are no match for them!"

He then turned back to the six clones, and then spun his hardened webs. He finished off all the six clones, and just as he was in his shock, Naruto acted.

He dropped silently from above, a kunai ready to bury itself in the nin's head, when Neji appeared out of nowhere, propelling both of them to another branch. He glared at the Hyuga, half in irritation and half in confusion. "What the hell?! How did you get out of that cocoon?!"

Shikamaru and Kiba joined them, while the man glared at them with hatred, wanting nothing more than to kill them. "How did you get out of the webs?!"

Neji coolly replied, "The Hyuga clan specialize in chakra based attacks, and your threads are full of chakra, Meaning," he turned to his teammates, and Naruto did not like where this was going, "This fight is best suited for me. Go now, and catch up to Sasuke!"

Shikamaru made a decision faster than Naruto and said, "I say we let him have this one. Naruto?"

Naruto gave Neji a hard glare, mixed with a searching glance. If Neji had not jumped in between, Kidomaru would be lying on the ground, a kunai buried in his head. His hand reached out, and roughly pulled Neji close to his face by his collar. "You better be alive after this fight, Neji," he told him in a harsh whisper.

He deliberately didn't tell him to catch up, because he knew Neji would be in no condition to catch up to them.

Neji gave a jerk of a nod, after which Naruto released him. Leaving Neji behind to fight Kidomaru, Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba leapt away. No one spoke a word, for the tensions were high because they had to leave a comrade behind. It was one of the hardest decision ninja ever faced- to go or reach somewhere, you have to leave something, or in this case, someone behind.

"I'm not going easy on Sasuke when I get my hands on him," Naruto growled.

'**About time. I really want to see that guy's ass handed to him on a silver platter decorated with diamonds.'**

The growl in his mind almost caused Naruto to miss a step, but he recovered. Waving away Shikamaru's and Kiba's searching looks, he gestured them to increase their pace. "Speed up you two! We have to try our utmost to catch them before the sunset!"

The trio increased their speed, while Naruto continued his conversation with Kurama. _'About time you woke up. Tell me you didn't see me and Temari-"_

'**NO!'**

Naruto sighed in relief. _'Good, otherwise it would have been terribly awkward.'_

'**It's a good thing that I can block myself in your mind, otherwise I would have had nightmares of your mating.'**

'_Awkwardness aside, I need to focus on my mission. Can't let my team get killed now, can I?'_

'**I don't understand why you even trusted the Uchiha in the first place!'**

'_I was not completely trusting, okay? I was reasonably cautious.'_

'**Your current predicament says different.'**

Naruto had no response for that. _'….Just let me concentrate, okay? I have a feeling that things would only get worse.'_

Kurama snorted. **'They always get worse before they get better, Naruto. Remember that.'**

The ancient fox went silent after that, leaving Naruto and his team to pursue in silence. Even though they kept going relentlessly, the darkness of the night descended upon them, and soon the only light source that they had was the full moon.

"We still haven't caught up to them!" Kiba growled in frustration.

Shikamaru placated him. "It's fine, we'll just maintain distance and wait to attack."

Kiba gawked at him. "Until dawn?! Wouldn't it be better to attack right now, while the dark gives us cover?"

Naruto and Shikamaru both rose an eyebrow. So Kiba _can _think intelligently sometimes. Shikamaru clarified Kiba's suggestion. "A sneak attack, you say?"

"Yeah! We can use decoys while one of us grabs the coffin."

Naruto shook his head. "As good as that sounds, the dark is only good for an instantaneous advantage. The sneak attack has to be timed perfectly and precisely, otherwise we all end up dead. Not to mention, you both don't have night vision, which only increasing the chances of our dying."

Kiba grumbled, but accepted the argument. Naruto and Shikamaru were far better when it came to calculating strategies. Thankfully, he didn't question the fact that Naruto excluded himself out of that statement.

Naruto guided them through the dark, applying a tiny bit of Kurama's chakra to his eyes to see through the dark. He kept his senses active for any sign that they had caught up, though he had a feeling that they would have to wait for a long time.

Naruto had brought three soldier pills with him. He took one, and gave the other two to his remaining team. They accepted them with a grateful nod of thanks.

The sun rose up in the sky, and Naruto finally got a lock on a chakra signature ahead of them, two in fact. It was similar to the last two sound ninja, so Naruto concluded that they were on the right track, and almost at the end of the trail. At the speed they were going…..

"I've got a lock on the last ones."

XXXXXXX

"Sakon!"

The warning reached the grey haired boy in time, as he smirked savagely.

His hands reached out quickly to catch those of the blonde who tried to bury a kunai in his neck. He grinned at the struggling blonde. "You are going to die if that's all you have!"

There was no change in the expression of his captive, so Sakon had no warning at all. A white twister went right through his captive- who was a shadow clone, judging from the smoke- and into him, sending him flying back towards the tree branch with his teammate stuck on it.

The redhead cursed and prepared to move herself and the coffin out of the way, when her eyes widened, and she struggled to look at the cause. She couldn't move! Her shadow had been caught by the chunin.

"Tayuya, move!"

Sakon yelled at her to move, but there was no way for her to do so. Shikamaru released his jutsu at the last minute, causing both of the sound nin into crash into each other. The coffin went flying, out of her grasp and straight into the arms of Kiba, who threw it to Naruto.

As soon as Naruto caught it, he barked out. "MOVE IT!"

Naruto ran off from the clearing, with Shikamaru and Kiba close behind. Naruto kept a faster pace than before, so his remaining team members had some trouble following him. Shikamaru grinned, "We can hightail it back to the village!"

As if it was that easy. "You are forgetting that they are recipients to the power of the curse seal, and as such would have no problem in catching up with us. In fact, I can sense them following, and Sakon is catching up!"

The chunin and the genin looked behind, their eyes widening upon seeing Sakon covered in the black waves of the curse mark. And he was steadily catching up to them. Shikamaru grit his teeth. "Naruto, you are the fastest one among us. So-"

Naruto sharply cut in. "I'm not leaving you behind, Shika!"

His right hand came up in a half ram. "Brace yourselves!"

A series of explosions, larger than what Shikamaru and Kiba had ever seen, rose up. Sakon was so into the pursuit, blinded by the rage that these _kids _had managed to outsmart him, that he failed to notice the explosive tags on the trees. They were put slightly out of sight, so as to not alert anyone immediately.

Naruto smirked in satisfaction. They path they were on was the same one that they came from, so Naruto had taken precautions in case of a pursuit like this. He had laid out some of his personal tags very systematically, for the sole purpose of slowing down anyone who might follow them in their return.

His smirk dropped, however, when Sakon emerged from the smoke, angrier than ever. "You'll have to try harder than that, you _assholes!"_

Unfortunately, Akamaru was surprised by the nin's appearance, and as a consequence, lost his footing momentarily. He fell and landed heavily on a trunk of a tree.

Kiba immediately changed course to his familiar. "Akamaru!"

Naruto cursed when he saw that Sakon had wrapped ninja wire around Akamaru, painfully trying to squeeze him to death. And it seemed that Naruto gave too little credit to the brains of the guy, for he did not forget about them. A kunai came racing towards them, an explosive tag wrapped in the ring.

Naruto's eyes widened and he retaliated, a shuriken whizzing through the air to knock the kunai off course. The kunai got knocked off its path, arching to bury itself a few meters away from Sakon. Kiba had just reached Akamaru when the tag went off.

For a moment, Naruto was blinded by the light of the explosion. The smoke that followed it did not help either.

Panic spread through him at the thought that Kiba and Akamaru were caught in the blast, and he hastily spread out his senses, trying to get a lock on their signatures. He released a breath of relief, followed by a frown of confusion when he sensed that all the three were falling down into a-

"What the fuck?! Where did that ravine come from?!"

For all his observational skills, Naruto was truly perplexed on how he had not managed to spot the deep ravine. In a rare moment where emotion clouded his judgement, he rushed forwards, ready to go down to see if they were alive, only to be pulled back by his chunin teammate.

He snarled at Shika. "What?!"

Shikamaru only pointed a finger behind them, and Naruto turned to see the redhead, Tayuya, coming for them. Naruto was about to say something when his danger sense buzzed loudly, indicating a particularly large threat heading for them behind his back. Spreading his senses, he found a large source of chakra heading for them, still half a kilometer away, and closing quickly.

Tayuya shouted. "You assholes!"

She was about to continue rushing forward, when she suddenly stopped, eyes trained not at Naruto and Shikamaru, but behind them. "You….what are you doing here?"

Seeing a mostly overconfident enemy whisper in such dread filled voice, Naruto braced himself for whatever was coming for them. He acted just at the right time, grabbing Shikamaru by the vest and flash stepping to another branch, avoiding the newcomer.

He was deathly pale, and looked as if he was under the effects of a sickness. His white hair was short, with two sections wrapped uniquely over his shoulder. He wore a strange, lavender body suit, with splits in the front to show his sweats. But it was the purple bow, that let Shikamaru know that shit was about to hit the fan.

It distantly occurred to Naruto that he should have left Hiraishin marks at intervals during their pursuit, so they could have avoided this sort of chase altogether.

He narrowed his eyes at the figure. "Who are you?"

"Kimimaro…..wh- how? Your body is no longer-"

The whisper was of shock, but Naruto had no problem hearing her. So this guy was suffering from an illness, and from her choice of words it was most likely terminal.

"True. That is all I am good for now…..making sure Orochimaru-sama's dream come to fruition," he spoke quietly, and Naruto internally frowned at the lack of emotion in his voice. "I have my mission, and you have yours. _I _will make sure the new vessel reaches Orochimaru-sama."

Naruto and Shikamaru faced the newcomer, who was standing right in front of them. Naruto was spreading his senses as far as he could, trying to locate even one of his markings, besides Shikamaru, but no such luck. They were too far out.

"Shika…"

"Don't forget the mission objective, Naruto," Shikamaru cut in calmly, his eyes not leaving his now chosen opponent.

Lowering his voice so that only Shikamaru could hear him, he spoke. "I better find you alive, you understand?"

Without waiting for a reply, Naruto was gone in a flash step. Kimimaro followed him not even a second later, ignoring Tayuya's cursing.

Now that Naruto was alone, he had no need to restrain his speed. He _flew _through the tree line, making Kimimaro frown as he struggled to keep up with the blonde, let alone catch up. Even with the coffin in his arms, Naruto was managing to maintain his lead on Kimimaro.

Kimimaro realized, that this blonde shinobi was deviously fast. He pushed his dying body further with the power of the curse seal, and started to steadily gain on the blonde, if only slowly.

Naruto's frustration was building up as he felt that the lead that was between him and his pursuer started to close up. _'Dammit! Looks like I will have to release all the seals!'_

There was also some sort of strange energy coming from the coffin, and its taste was making him sick. Not to mention, the energy was steadily growing in amount. In his close proximity, it wanted to pulse through him, but was repelled by his own chakra. Naruto was nervous, even if nothing was really happening to him.

Then it occurred to him. One of the core, fundamental meaning of holding a high rank in the military forces. An advice that Kakashi had taught him, shortly after he got promoted. As a chunin, or a jonin, it was up to you to ensure that any mission you do, you do it with utmost precision. A mission should never remain incomplete if you could prevent it. No mistakes.

_No loose ends._

He emerged from the forest into a large clearing. He set down the coffin, and waited for his tail to catch up.

Sure enough, a few moments later, Kimimaro came into sight. He walked calmly towards Naruto, curse marks receding back into the seal, confident that he could take Naruto on without its power. He murmured to himself. "How to defeat you?"

Naruto kept a cold expression on his face. "Would you happen to know just exactly _what _Orochimaru wants Sasuke for?"

Kimimaro did not reply immediately, instead choosing to size Naruto up. "Orochimaru-sama has already obtained the immortality jutsu….something that only he understands and is capable of."

Naruto dryly returned. "Suuuuuure. But I fail to see what that has to do with Sasuke."

"Immortality doesn't mean that the body will remain…..just the soul. His soul is immortal, and to house that immortal soul, every once in a while, a new flesh is needed."

Taking a deep breath to calm his shudders, Naruto spoke back. "So Sasuke is supposed to be the new vessel, I take it? For someone with a terrible sense of fashion and make up, he has surprisingly good taste," he smirked in the end.

Kimimaro either didn't get the joke, or just didn't have a sense of humor. Deciding to waste no more time, Naruto made his first move.

For Kimimaro, it all happened too quickly. One second, the shinobi was standing 30 ft across from him, right hand comfortably resting on the coffin. The next, his face made contact with a violent kick that sent him spinning into the air.

But he recovered quickly, and just in time to block a punch mid-air. His opponent was good, very good. The blow had only hurt a bit, because of his enhanced durability, but the fact that it even hurt said volumes about his opponent. They landed on the ground, and started exchanging blows.

Naruto was reasonably cautious when he engaged in a fight with Kimimaro. The bone-like protrusions coming from Kimimaro's palm were obviously to be avoided. Kimimaro was an aggressive fighter, but of the kind that managed to make each one of his moves like a deadly dance.

In a swift motion, his Hiraishin kunai came into his hand, coated with wind chakra, sharpened to the point of being a dagger. Kimimaro apparently saw those as a threat, even with his own set of weapons, as he switched to defense. The sound nin did not allow his annoyance to show on his face at the lack of pattern in the hits that Naruto was throwing at him.

Naruto, likewise, was trying to find an advantage. Those protrusions on his hands were very sharp and annoying. One swipe had come close to his throat. Not only that, but Kimimaro could apparently make those protrusions pop up from _anywhere _on his body. Naruto had yet to take a hit, but was finding it very hard to find an opening to his opponent's style to put a seal on him.

'_Maybe I should spice it up a bit.'_

Two clones suddenly appeared, and Kimimaro found it significantly harder to attack as he was forced to switch to defense. Even though they were shadow clones, they had the skill of the original and as such, three slashes found their way into his guard.

He snarled, losing his cool a bit and extended his bone spikes outwards like a porcupine, catching one of the clones and dispelling it into a cloud of smoke.

The remaining clone dodged a spike by doing a one-handed cartwheel on top of his head. His right hand, a spike protruding from his palm, came up to dispel it, but he made one crucial mistake in account of his short term problem.

He didn't keep track of the original.

As soon as he dispelled the clone, he caught _something _heading towards him in his peripheral vision. He desperately leapt to the side, trying to dodge whatever it was.

Even though the compressed ball of wind didn't hit Kimimaro directly, it was close enough that it might as well be a point-blank attack. The explosion violently hurled Kimimaro to Naruto's right, the wind from the explosion having made more than a few scratches on him. Just as he was about to switch directly to the second level of his curse mark, something brutally slammed into his back, sending him right back towards the direction that he came from, spinning like a screw in the air. He grit his teeth because whatever jutsu was used, it grinded on his back. Right where he couldn't grow bones from. Right where his _flesh _was.

And it _really hurt._

Naruto kept his guard up, even though he'd managed to smash a Rasengan directly into Kimimaro's back. The guy was tough, more in a literal sense than the metaphorical. Naruto had figured that for him to use his bones as a weapon, they would have to be extremely tough. Tougher than one could imagine. So Naruto had created a rasengan slightly bigger than his usual, and spun it with greater speed than ever before. Which meant greater damage to the target. His clone had slapped a marking on Kimimaro's head, so Naruto was able to use Hiraishin to catch him off guard.

Still, it wouldn't exactly be a surprise to him if Kimimaro got up after that attack.

Just as he finished his last thought, he saw a figure slowly rising in the dust cloud that was created after the rasengan burst. He was obviously in pain, and when the dust finally cleared, Naruto bit back a smirk at Kimimaro's expression.

He was _pissed off._

There was not a single trace of the calm, confidence Naruto had first seen on his face. All the composure seemed to have left him, and he looked like he wanted nothing more than to turn Naruto into a sponge by creating a number of holes that was a bit too disturbing to think about.

"You are powerful, Konoha shinobi," he said in a controlled voice that was a contrast to the rage filled expression. His back was hunched a bit, in obvious pain. "Never have I met someone who could push me like this, except for Orochimaru-sama."

Foul energy began to take an aura around him. "It seems that I cannot afford to hold back any longer."

Naruto watched as Kimimaro's power began to grow. Unlike the little black marks that covered Sasuke upon the seal's activation, his seemed to cover his entire body in almost a second layer, giving his skin an entirely new look. Judging by the way he was standing, it probably healed the injury caused by the rasengan as well.

All in all, he looked hideous.

_Crack!_

Confused, both Naruto and Kimimaro turned to look at the coffin. Naruto was about to turn back when nothing happened for a few moments, when the coffin exploded.

_BOOM!_

Naruto stood in his position, unflinching as he deduced that whatever purpose Sasuke was put into this coffin, that was fulfilled. Sasuke emerged from the coffin, looking…_different._

The colors of his skin and hair were all wrong and inverted. Naruto couldn't see his face as he was facing Sasuke's back. "That's enough Sasuke! You're coming back with me, _**right now!"**_

His skin and hair reverted to normal colors, Sasuke laughed, and Naruto frowned deeply when he heard how detached it was, how…._manic _it was. Sasuke walked towards into the forest, as if he had never heard Naruto speak.

"I'm _ordering _you to _Stop. Right. Now, Sasuke!"_

Sasuke broke into a run, disappearing into the trees, in the direction of the border of the fire country. He completely disregarded Naruto's growled order.

Naruto was in a bit of a bind right now. He could not turn, for Kimimaro would jam a bone spike into him at the slightest opening. And if he did not turn, he would lose Sasuke. He could already sense the Uchiha moving at incredible speeds. Speeds that he normally wasn't capable of, last time Naruto checked.

So he took a risk. He turned around, under the pretense of dropping his guard. Just like he expected, Kimimaro was at his back in less than a second, a spike ready to stab him through the heart.

"_Konoha Senpuu!" _

Two things happened after the cry was heard. Naruto flashed away to a kunai buried in the ground a few meters away, and Kimimaro suffered a vicious kick to the spike in his hand, sending him back.

Naruto lifted his head up to see…..

Yep, the green spandex, bushy eyebrows, it was Lee. The boy turned and grinned. "Naruto-kun! I am here to help!"

Naruto lifted an eyebrow, hiding his surprise at Lee's arrival. "You are supposed to be recovering, Lee. Why are you here?"

"I am here to help! I will stay behind and handle this most unyouthful opponent! You pursue Sasuke-kun!"

With a brisk nod of thanks, Naruto yanked his kunai out and dashed into the direction Sasuke had gone.

The entirety of his team had split up, putting their lives on the line so they could get Sasuke back.

This entire mission had been a relay, with every team member running their race.

The final lap was up to Naruto, and there was no way he would be losing.

He went full throttle, his senses locked onto Sasuke's.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke felt his power growing, yet at the same time, it did not feel like his power. But rather, power that was someone else's, merging with his own.

It was a feeling like nothing else, and it increased to a point that it got hard to contain, or control. Sasuke was conscious enough to know where he was, and decided that he had been trapped long enough. Now was his time to make his move.

If they were at where he was supposed to be, good.

If not, too bad for them, because he _didn't care._

He knew where he was supposed to go.

He flexed his power, and the result was glorious. It was like being freed from the bonds that held you against your will, yet only made you stronger.

The power was still merged with him, and he felt powerful like never before. It was like the power itself was restrained, like him. Now it was free, and it felt _amazing._

He was high on power, so high that he could only distantly hear someone calling his name. He paid the call no heed, only having one destination in mind. He flexed his power again, this time, commanding it to make him fast.

And it obeyed.

The power allowed him to go at speeds that only Naruto was capable of going at. Sasuke knew that his resistance seals had been taken off before he was put into the coffin, so he was almost twice as fast as he was before. Coupled with the power of the seal, and he was fast enough to give Naruto a run for his money.

(See what I did there? _Run _for his money?)

He was slowly coming down from the high, so his rationality was coming back. He looked back once, to see if anyone was following him or not. He gave a satisfied smirk upon seeing no one, and continued on his journey with even greater vigor.

He finally came to the border that separated the Fire country and the Rice country. It went by a name that was famous: Valley of the End.

The place not only served as the border between the two countries, but as a famous landmark. This place was carved out when Senju Hashirama fought his best friend, Uchiha Madara, to death.

By the way, Sasuke doesn't know who that is. This is the author, informing ya'll.

Sasuke jumped from the head of the Shodai Hokage, down to the water, and onto the head of the spiky haired statue.

This was it. Once he crossed this valley, he would sever all his bonds with Konoha. There was no coming back from this.

He froze in his tracks, however, upon hearing that achingly familiar voice, filled with coldness and simmering rage, masked with nonchalance.

"I hope you know that I won't let you leave like this, Sasuke."


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 28

**AN: It's rather hard for me to believe that I managed to reach a point in my story where it can no longer afford to be abandoned. Anyways, the long awaited fight between Naruto and Sasuke is finally here, and I hope you enjoy it. Some of you expressed doubts whether I was nerfing Naruto because of Sasuke's upgrade to level 2. The answer is NO.**

**I will say no more, but this chapter will fully showcase just what Naruto is capable of in my story. And don't worry, I won't make it as if it will be a complete beatdown. But I will be pushing the abilities of Sasuke's curse mark.**

**After this chapter, there will probably be one or two more chapters, which would end this story, while hopefully setting up stage for Shippuden. I plan to do some character rewrite in the sequel. **

**Onto the chapter then! Don't forget to review!**

Naruto chased after his rogue comrade, frowning at how he was pushing himself. Granted, even he had removed almost all of his resistance for this mission, but for Sasuke to match the speed he was going at with majority of his resistance removed was rather troubling.

And he felt a bit guilty for feeling this, but he felt _excited._

The thought that he might have to use his full power to fight Sasuke gave him a rush that brought a feral grin to his face. For too long he had wanted to have a fight where he could give it his all. He had given it a thought that the coffin that housed Sasuke was part of some sort of process that was supposed to release the full power of the cursed seal. And Naruto knew just how powerful Sasuke was with the seal. He daresay that it would have required every trick in his arsenal to stop Sasuke with the first level of the curse mark, without resorting to Kurama's chakra. But now, he had a feeling that the upcoming fight will be much more challenging.

There was quite a reasonable amount of distance between him and Sasuke, due to the latter having an early start. But as he was catching up, he frowned as he sensed the chakra signature stop in front of him. Why would Sasuke stop? Did he know that Naruto was in pursuit?

Deciding not to let the opportunity slip, Naruto turned full throttle, rapidly closing the distance between him and Sasuke. His eyes widened when he saw Sasuke come into view, but narrowed when he actually deduced just where the two of them had arrived at.

A flash step sent him onto the head of Senju Hashirama, just as Sasuke was once again starting to walk away. Straightening up, he spoke in a normal voice that clearly reached the Uchiha. "I hope you know that I won't let you leave like this, Sasuke."

The Uchiha froze in his tracks, and Naruto watched as he slowly turned towards him. Alarm bells rang in his mind when he took in his appearance.

Sasuke pretty much looked like when the power of the curse mark flowed in his chakra network, but there was a clear difference. Sasuke's left side was covered in black marks, like before, but his left eye had changed, having a black sclera and a golden iris, which gave him a rather menacing look. Not to mention the sick smile that he was sporting. It made him look very deranged.

For a fleeting moment, Naruto's mind recalled the meeting he had with the last person he saw before leaving the village for pursuit.

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto was briskly walking towards the village gates from where Shikamaru had taken off in pursuit. He was currently in the process of gaining the mindset for the retrieval mission. There was a chance that he might have to kill Sasuke, and Naruto did not like that. If it was possible, he would try his level best to bring him back alive, even if he had to break every single bone in the Uchiha's body._

_The thought of killing Sasuke did not appeal to him._

_Just as he arrived at the gate, he took a deep breath and let it out. "Be quick in what you have to say, Sakura."_

_He turned around, a frown gracing his features as he looked at his former teammate. Sakura looked terrible- there were noticeable bags underneath her eyes due to lack of sleep, there were tear tracks on her face and even now, she looked like she was barely holding any more tears at bay._

"_Naruto," her voice broke as she bit her lip, holding back the tears desperately. She then continued in a whisper, "Please bring Sasuke back. I beg you."_

_Naruto sighed as he looked down, contemplating on what to say. He had a suspicion that Sakura's feelings for the Uchiha were not those of a typical fangirl, but it only added to her misery if Sasuke did not care to return those feelings. He decided to be blunt with her, for if he lied…she would never forgive him._

"_I will bring Sasuke back, Sakura," he told her with a straight face, and it hurt a bit to crush that glimmer of hope that made itself known on her face, "But not for you."_

_Sakura's lip trembled. "W-What?"_

"_I will bring Sasuke back because it is my duty to do so as a shinobi of Konoha. Because I have been ordered to do so."_

_The bluntness of his words caused the tears to finally flow again. She near shouted at him, her words a mixture of rage and disbelief. "Why?! Why only because it's your duty?! Why not because he's your friend, yours and mine teammate?!"_

_Naruto pursed his lips together. "I'll be frank with you Sakura. Hokage-sama has ordered me to get Sasuke back by any means necessary. Not only that," he continued despite the growing horror on Sakura's face, "But Hokage-sama has given me very specific instructions to bring Sasuke back…..regardless of whether he's dead, or alive."_

_Sakura put her hands on her mouth in growing dismay and horror. The mere thought of Sasuke being dead at the hands of Naruto…_

"_Please don't tell me you intend to kill him."_

_Naruto pursed his lips. "I don't, but it might be difficult to get him back alive. He left on his own free will, not to mention he's probably being guarded by some of Orochimaru's finest."_

_He turned and started walking away. "I won't get my hopes up if I were you, Sakura. But I won't stop you from praying for a miracle."_

_**Flashback end**_

By now, Naruto had hardened his resolve, shoving the memory of his meeting with Sakura to the back of his mind. He could not afford to get distracted right now.

He didn't know why, but a sense of familiarity shot through him as he considered his and Sasuke's positions. It was almost as if…..they had been here _before._

Naruto decided to speak first. "Do you have a reason as to why you deserted the village, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's answer was detached, as if he no longer cared what Naruto said. "I'm done fooling around with the leaf….and you, Naruto. Konoha cannot make me strong enough for what I need to do."

Naruto had to admit that Sasuke was partially right in the regard. With what happened with Uchiha Itachi, the village wanted to keep a close eye on Sasuke to prevent it from happening again. Konoha's history with powerful Uchiha shinobi was not good at all. "Regardless, you are coming back with me to the village, whether you like it or not. My team did not risk their lives for nothing."

Sasuke tilted his head, as if he was merely curious. "You think you can force me to come back, Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed at how Sasuke so casually disregarded the fact that lives had been put on stake to get him back. Sasuke continued, "I don't think you fully understand the power that I now possess, Naruto."

And it was true. Ever since his seal had been enhanced, Sasuke could tell that he was substantially more powerful than before. He was sure that he could take on Naruto and win, but he knew that he would have to work hard for it.

"You sure do lack your brother's resolve."

That _froze _the blood flowing in his veins. In a low whisper he snarled, "What did you say?!"

Naruto knew what he did was low. Itachi was a sore spot for Sasuke, and hitting it like the way he did was cruel of him. But he needed Sasuke to see reason before he proceeds to fight him. "Your brother got strong inside the village, Sasuke. You know that he didn't need any outside help to become as strong as he did."

"SHUT UP!"

Sasuke yelled, but made no move to attack Naruto. "You know nothing!"

But Naruto pressed on. "Shodai, Nidaime, Sandaime, Yondaime, Sannin, Hatake Sakumo, Maito Dai, Kakashi, Gai….all of these are some of the most powerful shinobi in the world, Sasuke. Do you think that they became powerful by seeking outside help?"

"Make your point already, dammit!"

"My point is, all of these Shinobi are a product of Konoha, just like your brother was. They were not weak, just like your brother. You can become strong as well-"

"Konoha has held me back enough. If that village can't give me the strength I need, I'll take it from elsewhere." Sasuke trampled over Naruto's words as if they hadn't even been spoken. He was sick of this!

Naruto was starting to get annoyed now. "You must have dropped a few brain cells somewhere if you think I'll let Orochimaru have that body of yours."

"I don't care."

Sasuke spread out his arms. "If you think that you can make me come back, then I dare you to try."

He was practically inviting him to fight him. Naruto could feel his heart beating faster as adrenaline started flowing. This was his chance to really go all out, but he had to be careful. Sasuke knew how he fought, and he would no doubt be avoiding his palm strikes that Naruto frequently used to slap the Hiraishin mark on his opponents, or just any sort of seal. This would be a completely different type of fight, a fight that was based partially on the mission, and partially to see who was the most powerful between them. Naruto had proved himself superior time and time again to Sasuke, but Sasuke seemingly had an edge now. And to be frank, Naruto wanted to drag out the fight simply to pitch himself against the Uchiha, to see where each of them stood.

Let the fight begin.

Naruto made eye contact with Sasuke under the pretense of glaring at him. Sasuke was about to taunt him further, when he felt himself freezing up. Immediately recalling a similar incident where Orochimaru had done the same thing, the name of the technique sprang to his mind.

'_Kanashibari no jutsu!'_

Before he could flex his chakra to free himself, Naruto had rocketed forward and had ruthlessly slammed him into the wall behind him, his hand pressed against his throat and holding him up.

Naruto gazed intently as he held Sasuke by his throat. That was one of his fastest flash steps, he had to admit. And yet, judging by the lack of surprise, Naruto knew that Sasuke had managed to _see _him, to a degree. As if he knew that Naruto would do that.

Naruto's sense rang a second before Sasuke's knee came up to bury itself in his gut. Or what would have been his gut, had he not jumped back.

Sasuke sprang forward to engage Naruto in a furious bout of taijutsu. His sharingan had activated the moment Naruto had frozen him, and he knew better than to underestimate the blonde. Naruto was fast, faster than Sasuke, but the perceptiveness of his sharingan allowed Sasuke to either dodge or block hits by the smallest of the margins.

Before a rhythm could be established in the fight, Naruto spun a kunai in his right hand and slashed at Sasuke, who mentally cursed and jumped back reflexively, failing to avoid the slash completely and as a result, a small tear appeared on the front of his shirt.

Naruto gave Sasuke no time to think as he went on the offensive. But Sasuke was willing to take risks, it seemed. Naruto was slightly impressed when Sasuke allowed a punch to penetrate his guard, right into his gut. But Sasuke retaliated right after Naruto's attack, throwing a punch and successfully connecting it to Naruto's cheek, sending him backwards.

Sasuke coughed up blood due to the force of the punch.

The timing of those two attacks was such that each was thrown back by the attack of the other. Naruto threw four shuriken at Sasuke with deadly accuracy, which Sasuke jumped to the side to avoid, since he didn't have any shinobi tools for himself. However, Naruto showed off his own ability to predict his opponent as well. As soon as Sasuke had jumped to the side, Naruto was right up in his guard, his left fist slamming into his ribs. Sasuke coughed up blood once more, knowing that even though they hadn't cracked yet, nasty bruises will be forming in the area.

And that thought sent him into a rage, knowing that Naruto was holding back on him. Naruto could have easily broken them, yet he held back, and that was insulting!

Sasuke's sharingan managed to predict Naruto's attack for him to avoid it just in time, but it failed to see that Naruto was setting him up. He winced at force behind the 540-kick his left hand blocked, but was caught off guard when his legs were swiped off beneath him.

Naruto took full advantage of the maneuver his shadow clone did. Sasuke's legs were swiped with such force that he was horizontal in the air for a moment, which was all the time Naruto needed. Catching Sasuke by the heel, Naruto spun once and threw the Uchiha down, right into the water. He then jumped down onto Madara's finger, watching the splash.

Sasuke surfaced in seconds and pulled himself on top of the water. He carefully took note of the receded curse marks. "Face it Sasuke, you have a long way to go until you can match me."

Sasuke snarled at the taunt. "You have yet to see anything. And stop holding back on me!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes before jumping down to meet Sasuke halfway. Neither gained any advantage due to their mid-air position, except for pushing each other back. Naruto pulled two of his special kunai out, one held in a reverse grip and the other in a normal. He then dashed towards Sasuke, the other boy doing the same.

Due to Sasuke not having any tools of his own, he was at a disadvantage and was hard pressed to dodge the deadly strikes. His sharingan was working overtime to predict Naruto's strikes, only partially succeeding. Not only that, but his arms were aching in protest from blocking Naruto's blows, and the force behind them.

Naruto might be built for speed, but he sure wasn't lacking in the strength department.

Naruto dodged a punch and a roundhouse from Sasuke, going into a handstand and spinning to land a vicious double kick to Sasuke's face. Sasuke recovered quickly however, spinning low and trying to trip Naruto. Naruto flipped forward to avoid that, and Sasuke used the momentum from his spin to throw forward a high kick to Naruto's head. Naruto saw that coming and was able to counter it with a high kick of his own.

But he got slightly disbalanced by performing two counters such as those, back to back. Sasuke took advantage of that and landed a three punch combo to Naruto's ribs, following it with a knee to the stomach. But Naruto caught his bearings and blocked any further attacks, catching Sasuke's wrist and pulling his arm to the side, leaving an opening. Slapping Sasuke's other arm away, Naruto buried a fist into Sasuke's gut, making him cough blood once more.

As payback for the punch combo, Naruto released Sasuke's wrist and struck a punch right into his chin. The force was so great in lifted Sasuke of his feet for a moment. Sasuke tried to push the pain aside, but before he could do so, a foot slammed into him, once again in his gut, throwing him almost a dozen feet back.

Sasuke recovered, however, mid-roll and was back on his feet, just in time to dodge the three-pronged kunai that would have pierced his thigh. Before he could perform handseals for a jutsu, his sharingan caught another kunai tearing towards him. He hastily jumped back, his hands starting a seal sequence.

"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!"

In his haste, however, Sasuke forgot for a split-second, only remembering when the fireball made its way towards Naruto, what the function of the kunai was.

Sure enough, Naruto flashed to the last kunai he had thrown, and _shunpoed _to land a flying kick right in Sasuke's face, who had just landed on the ground. The kick sent Sasuke flying further back, sliding on the water.

Sasuke grunted in pain as he flipped onto his feet. This fight really wasn't going in his favor. His blows were doing jack to Naruto, while the other's blows were slowly wearing him down. Either Naruto had some armor on inside the uniform, or the Kyuubi was healing the damage from Sasuke's blows, or the guy just had really high pain tolerance.

Flashing through seals, Sasuke had electricity crackling in his hands. "Chidori!"

Grinning maniacally, he dashed forward, fully intending to drive the lightning blade through Naruto. Although a part of him knew that Naruto would have a definite counter to him.

Sure enough, Naruto dashed forward himself, a rasengan appearing in his instantly. Both of them clashed and the force expelled was such that, that water swirled under their feet and raged around them. Both Naruto and Sasuke were trying their damn hardest to push the other back, and push they did.

Both of them were thrown back from the backlash of the collision after a few seconds. Sasuke flipped in the air and crashed into the water, submerging for a few seconds. Naruto was lucky to have landed feet first on the water and was sent skidding back a dozen feet.

He stood up in a stance, senses spread in case Sasuke tried to attack from under the water. But the Uchiha emerged from the water, heaving deep breaths as he stood up, glaring at Naruto.

'_I really thought the rasengan would be stronger against that. Guess I'll have to do something about this.'_

'_He countered my chidori at full power.'_

Naruto looked at Sasuke with an unreadable look on his face. Then without warning, Naruto flashed through seals. Sasuke instantly copied them, but cursed the fact that he wasn't able to achieve the effect Naruto did. Clearly, this wasn't the full sequence.

Two drills of water sprang on his sides and barreled into him. He was able to avoid one, but the other crashed into him and sent him flying onto the bank rather painfully.

Sasuke coughed as his chest screamed in protest. _'That really hurt! I can't copy his jutsu if he's not using the full sequence, and he knows that! Worse, I don't know water or air manipulation!'_

In his pain, Sasuke failed to take notice that a Hiraishin kunai was buried right behind him. Naruto had thrown it right when Sasuke had crashed on the ground, to prevent him from knowing about it.

So it stood to reason that Sasuke was shocked and had no counter against the football kick that Naruto smashed into his gut, right after flashing in front of him. The force sent new waves of pain coursing through him, as well as sending him skidding back a few feet.

"You can't beat me, Sasuke. Not with what you have."

Naruto's words caused Sasuke to pause, looking up at Naruto with silent rage. In response to his rage, the curse mark was activated and it spread over Sasuke's entire body, as opposed to one side. Not only that, but for the first time, Naruto's eyes had some alarm in them as he gazed at Sasuke. Not because of the curse mark, but because of Sasuke's eyes.

A third tomoe appeared in both of the eyes. Sasuke's sharingan had finally, fully matured.

Sasuke snarled in response, not knowing about the change in his eyes. "We'll see about that!"

Speeding through handseals, a horde of fireballs made their way towards Naruto, who neatly dodged every single one of them. He was barely prepared, however, for Sasuke to be standing right where he was, after he dodged the last fireball.

On pure reflex, Naruto bent back a full ninety degrees, avoiding the slash at his throat that Sasuke made holding Naruto's own kunai in hand. He didn't have time to wonder just how fast Sasuke had gotten under the influence of the curse mark, because now he was on defensive. He was reminded of the days when he practiced the snake style taijutsu with Anko-sensei.

Sasuke was relentless, but Naruto didn't need to know the pattern of the attacks to deliver a counter. His left hand came up to grab Sasuke's right wrist, stopping the kunai from burying itself in his head. Naruto's left leg came up in a high kick, but was stopped by Sasuke's other hand. Immediately lifting the wrist he was grabbing, Naruto used his free leg to jump, twisting so that his thighs were around Sasuke's neck.

Using all the force he could muster, Naruto flipped back, slamming Sasuke on the ground on his front. He flipped back, but was shocked to see that Sasuke had stood up with him, with seemingly no damage.

The Uchiha smirked. "You might as well give up if that's all you have."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. _'Looks like I would have to go all out as well.'_

With a half ram seal, he released all the remaining resistance seals that were activated. It was a level 7, so it should make a difference.

Sasuke's face soured when he realized that Naruto was holding back on him still. "Looks like you have a death wish after all."

With that, he put his new speed to test. In a second, he was in front of Naruto, throwing punches, kicks, jabs, strikes like it was no one's business. He put his everything in his attacks, trying to inflict all the pain he could on Naruto.

But soon his anger and sadistic pleasure switched to irritation and shock when Naruto countered all his attacks without a problem. He _knew _something had changed because he could predict Naruto's movements better than before, and realized with a start that his sharingan had finally evolved fully. Grinning, he jumped back, deciding to switch to long distance tactics.

Naruto was glad he got rid of the last of his seals, because he would need to be at his peak to counter a fully evolved sharingan, that has been enhanced with an outside source. That short, but intense taijutsu bout had pushed him to his maximum, and had told Naruto that this fight had accelerated to a whole new level.

He gracefully flipped out of the way of the fireball that Sasuke shot at him, throwing some Hiraishin kunai around the area mid-air. He had a feeling he was going to need them.

He immediately flashed away as the hair on the back of his neck stood up in warning, and it was good that he did, because Sasuke had been waiting for him on the spot where he was going to land. Where the hell was this speed coming from?!

His hands came up in a tiger seal, and Sasuke found himself bound with chains made up of water. Both of his hands were held away from him, and no matter how hard he pushed, the chains held.

He looked up in alarm as Naruto did a snake seal and spat a compressed ball of wind towards him. Sasuke did _not_ want to find out the effects of that jutsu, so he did something unusual for the very first time.

He substituted with a piece of rock, _without hand seals._

He felt the larger than normal drain on his chakra, but it at least got him out of the way. The piece of rock exploded with a bang, tiny chunks of it being blown apart by the explosive wind. With a few quick seals, he sent another fireball Naruto's way, but the blonde simply flashed away, and Sasuke found himself being blown away by an extremely fast wind.

The wind was so strong that he was spinning high in the air, and as such was unable to correct his position mid-air. Naruto took clear advantage of that by speeding through seals once more.

'_Suiton: Mizu Tatsumaki no jutsu!'_

One of his heavy hitters, the jutsu's purpose was to catch Sasuke in its grasp and violently throw him away with the force of a tornado. The spinning vortex of water materialized in a matter of seconds at the spot where Naruto guessed Sasuke would land.

Sasuke's eyes widened in alarm when he saw water spinning below him where he would land. He recognized the jutsu as the one Naruto used against Gaara. Just as he landed, he desperately tried to get away, but the vortex had gathered enough speed that the water beneath his feet spun, taking him into the vortex.

Sasuke's head spun as his body was violently spun in the vortex, and then, he was thrown out from it, his body slamming into the rocks and falling down. His muscles screamed in protest as he got up, and he drew even more power from the cursed mark, making his recovery faster, but painful nonetheless.

Naruto's eye was twitching in irritation upon seeing Sasuke standing up after what happened to him. The rate of recovery that Sasuke was showing was really getting on his nerves. He knew that the curse mark enhanced the subject but this was ridiculous!

He would have to hit Sasuke really hard with to put him down, it seemed.

He was about to do some hand seals when an idea popped into his head. It was a crazy one, but if it worked, it could put Sasuke down, even in his state. It was a plan that lacked any efficiency whatsoever, but more than made up for it in terms of power.

And he had that in spades.

Six shadow clones popped around him. He put his hand in one of his pouches and took out an exploding tag. Not just any tag, but the self-replicating one. Time to initiate the first part of the plan.

Handing the tag to one of the clones, he flashed away to prepare on his part. The clones already knew what to do, and so they made their way down to Sasuke. By the time they had reached, Sasuke had recovered and was mad like no one else. He saw the clones coming and fired off a fireball of epic proportions. One of the clones hung back and formed a bird seal while the others charged straight towards the fireball.

'_Suiton: Suijinheki!'_

A wall of water sprung up, in which the fireball collided. The fireball turned the entire wall of water into steam, which spread around the area of the clones and Sasuke, who snarled. "Don't think this steam can hide you, Naruto! My eyes can see your every move!"

To prove his statement, he effortlessly dodged a downward axe-kick from a clone behind him. With a near instant reflex, he slammed an elbow into the clone's gut, dissipating it. Another came from his side, and he kicked it out of existence.

Four to go.

He heard them before he saw them, and he effortlessly caught the shuriken out of air, right in his hands. Flipping up to avoid the attack from another clone, he threw one shuriken at it. The clone poofed out of existence.

Three to go.

He threw the shuriken to his right, but only two clones emerged, and both of them avoided it. He engaged the two of them, and unlike before, he had little difficulty in countering their moves. One clone flipped away, while Sasuke took advantage of that and punched the other clone out of existence. Turning around to deal with the last two, his eyes widened in alarm when he saw the clone preparing to spit something at him.

He cut off the chakra under his feet, going underwater just as the clone spit out air, clearing all the steam from the area. Its chakra supply depleted, the clone vanished out of existence.

But Sasuke felt no victory, even as he dodged the attack by going underwater, because right now, he was staring at a smirking clone, ad both of them were surrounded by a large number of explosive tags. Sasuke knew in an instant that this was a clone because as reckless Naruto was, even he would not attempt such a move in a close proximity. Only one thought went through his mind.

_Oh shit._

All the tags exploded simultaneously, and Sasuke was tossed high into the air, along with large amounts of water. The force of the underwater explosion was so great that the water, and Sasuke along with it, was tossed high up in the air, high enough to be a head above the heads of Hashirama and Madara.

Sasuke plummeted faster than the water, and took a moment to rage and lament at the fact that he had so foolishly thrown away his hip pouch. He angled his body to crash feet first into the water; his entire body, especially stomach and ribs, screaming in protest of the abuse he had been getting from the blonde. Once the water had relatively settled- waves, but no explosions- he surfaced and looked around, trying to see where Naruto was. Once he was sure that no one was around, he took a moment to breathe. He knew Naruto wasn't gone, the guy wouldn't leave until he had Sasuke with him. Sasuke took a moment to admire the plan that the blonde had come up in such a short time.

He knew that this fight was dragging on longer than he liked. Almost half of his reserves had been emptied, but he still was on the losing side of the fight. That thought caused more power to flow into him; he had this feeling that somehow, a higher level of power he could reach if he drew more power.

But before he could do that, four Naruto's flashed into existence around him in the vicinity of the kunai. Two of them closed in immediately, while the other two provided long distance support by throwing in an occasional kunai, shuriken or jutsu.

Sasuke dealt with the two clones without difficulty and moved towards the other two. But just as he engaged them, something about their movements stood out to him. They were attacking alright, but their movements were complimentary of each other. Almost as if…

His train of thought wasn't allowed to continue as two more clones flashed into existence, and he was hard pressed to deal with them. He was so into the fight, that he failed to take notice of a blonde blur speeding towards their location, running on the bank.

XXXXXXX

Naruto had flashed right near the foot of Hashirama, ready to put his plan into action. While not one of his best ones, it would get the job done.

Simply put, he was going to hit Sasuke with every ounce of strength he had.

As soon as he got the memories of Sasuke getting caught in the water explosion, he put the next part of his plan into action. He had noticed during their fight that both he and Sasuke had moved quite far from the statues, far enough that they were nearer to the other end of the valley than the statues, almost seven-hundred meters away. He sent four clones to Sasuke's location to engage him and distract him while he started running.

He put everything in his sprint, every ounce of speed that he could muster, and enhancing it with chakra. By the time Sasuke and the clones came into his vision, Naruto was sure that he was running fast enough to give a freight train a run for its money. His target was the Hiraishin kunai right in front of him that was rapidly closing in.

Just as Sasuke had dispelled two of the clones, all the while being on the receiving end of punches and kicks, he saw Naruto speeding no towards them, but his track was such that he would run right past them. The guy was not even looking towards him. But before he could move in his direction, one of the clones engaged him, greatly increasing his annoyance.

The other clone saw the original running and caught his eye, receiving a nod in return. He knew just what he needed to do. He jumped right into the fight along with the remaining clone and was immediately on defensive, but his job wasn't to attack. He only had a five-second window to execute the plan. Just as Sasuke dispatched the other clone, the remaining one tilted his body to the side to avoid the kick that would have dispelled him as well. His right palm came to rest on Sasuke's back, and then he _pushed._

Naruto grinned when he saw Sasuke appear just five meters before him. The clone had done his job perfectly, teleporting Sasuke into the path of the speeding projectile that was himself. His right fist came up, glowing with the color of his chakra, further enhancing the force behind the would be blow, and the plan was well worth executing, because the look of complete shock on Sasuke's face was _absolutely _worth it.

Sasuke was confused just what Naruto was doing running on the banks while his clones fought him. Knowing that this was part of some plan, he knew he had to get rid of the clones, or just get out of the way and dispel them from afar. But his confusion only grew when the clone behind him did not attack, but just place a palm on his back. It all became clear the instant he appeared right in Naruto's path, and saw the glowing fist. Knowing he couldn't get out of the way in time, he had barely crossed his arms in defense when he felt the fist crashing into his already abused arms.

Sasuke definitely felt something crack, and _tear _in both of his forearms. The speed with which Naruto had been running only added to the force behind the punch, and Sasuke was thrown back as if he had taken a punch from Orochimaru back in the forest, only the force had been multiplied some four or five times.

He _smashed_ through a rock as if it were cardboard, crashed into the ground and kept skidding, and smashed through _another _rock, before coming to rest. All of his pain receptors were screaming, and he could only wonder why he wasn't. His back felt like it had been torn into two, repaired and _then _torn again. Yet, his resolve did not break.

'_That…..son of a…BITCH! THAT HURTS! WHERE THE HELL DID HE BRING THAT PUNCH FROM?! WHY CAN'T I BEAT HIM?! He is always a step ahead of me, and either I fail to realize it, or I realize it and still can't do anything about it! I am in no condition to move, I only have a third of my chakra reserves left, my body feels like it has literally been torn apart! He even hasn't used the Kyuubi's power yet, but I am almost torn apart even after using the curse mark's power!'_

The image of his brother drifted in his mind, his words echoing like a bell. _"Still as weak as always, foolish little brother…"_

Sasuke's wrist were cracked, if not outright broken. But in spite of the enormous amount of pain he was in, his hands closed into fists. The power of the curse mark flowed into him once more, this time, unrestricted. Sasuke drew every drop of power he could from the mark.

_He _would be the winner of this fight, _not _Naruto. The power, as if agreeing with him, mixed with him, _merged _with him. Then he stood up, marveling his form that pulsed with undeniable power.

Naruto was breathing heavily as he walked to where Sasuke had stopped after crashing. Sprinting for a long distance such as he did took a lot of breath out of him, but the result was worth it. The power behind the punch, combined with his speed, was probably enough to shatter a small part of the Hokages' heads on the mountain into pieces, he doubted Sasuke's hands were intact. He stopped before the prone form of his former comrade, looking at it with a small amount of pity. His fatigue had finally started to make itself known.

"It's over, Sasuke. I win," he whispered.

Then the unthinkable happened. It should have been impossible, no one should have been able to get up after a punch such as that. The curse marks on Sasuke's body glowed orange, and then they shifted so that they covered every inch of skin on Sasuke's body like armor. Naruto heard the gruesome cracks, no doubt the repair work on the bones. The skin stopped glowing, and Naruto shifted in a loose stance upon seeing it take on a grey color. Sasuke's hair grew, taking on a blue color and shifting into a form of a mane, much like Madara's.

Then, Sasuke got up.

Clearly, this was the change in the curse mark that had taken place inside the coffin. Sasuke stared at Naruto, an expressionless face, but the smugness was radiating off of him. Naruto couldn't quite hide the shock on his face, and his expression changed into a morbid curiosity as he heard the unmistakable voices of muscles being torn apart, or in this case, _rearranged._

There was no expression of pain on Sasuke's face, but Naruto couldn't quite hide his horror when a giant, clawed, webbed, grey _hand _tore out of the left side of Sasuke's back. Another one followed, this time on the right side of Sasuke's back, and both the arms spread, almost taking on the shape of wings.

Only when thought went through Naruto's head. _'What the fuck is that?!'_

'**What the fuck is that?!'**

Kurama and he had spoken on the same time, both of their tones echoing with disgust and disbelief. It was utterly disgusting and fascinating at the same time. Sasuke spoke lower than a whisper, but Naruto managed to hear him.

"My turn."

Then, he _moved._

Naruto had flashed as soon as Sasuke spoke, to the farthest kunai he could. He watched, and moved just at the right moment to avoid Sasuke who crashed where he was but a moment ago. He didn't have a moment of reprieve when Sasuke _flew _towards him, and punched him with such force that he was thrown back into the wall of the valley, cracks spreading out from the point of impact. Naruto groaned as he dropped to his knees. The force behind the punch was enough to drop a tree. The only reason he wasn't puking was because he hadn't ate anything, and that his body was significantly hardened from the use of resistance seals.

He had barely gotten up when Sasuke was right back in his face. This time, he flashed away on pure reflex. His expression hardened, and he flashed away yet again when Sasuke converged on him. Sasuke chuckled, "Looks like the tables have turned, Naruto."

He then dug his foot where he was, and flexed his newly acquired arms/wings. Naruto chose not to flash away this time, dodging the attack with a simple flip. He then locked into an arm struggle with Sasuke, with both their arms locked. Sasuke was surprised for a moment, but then smirked.

Naruto's arms shook as he struggled to overpower Sasuke. The latter pushed him back without any appearance of struggle. Finally, Naruto allowed his rage to show.

'_YOU WANT TO DO IT THIS WAY?! FINE THEN!'_

Sasuke maintained his smirk when he saw Naruto clearly struggling. He could maintain this power for ten minutes at most, but it should be enough to beat Naruto into the ground. He forced Naruto back, but widened when he saw something that he had never seen on the blonde's face.

Rage.

Sure he had seen Naruto angry before, but nothing like this. Currently, Naruto looked like he was the type of guy who handled all of his problem by blowing them into oblivion. _Then _he felt it.

Naruto's entire frame was then covered into an unfamiliar, orange glow. It was clearly chakra, and it took Sasuke only a second to place the familiar feeling of malice.

_Bijuu chakra._

Naruto squeezed his hands, and it was Sasuke's turn to grimace in pain and struggle. His hands were being squeezed and bent backwards painfully, and something sharp was digging into the back of his hands, through his newly hardened skin.

_Nails._

Sasuke was desperately trying to free his hands from Naruto's painful grip and completely failing, when he was pulled forward. For the first time, he glanced at Naruto's eyes and gave a horrified expression.

Naruto's irises were completely red, with a black split in the middle. They were the eyes of the Kyuubi, Sasuke realized.

"_**You're a real pest!"**_

The growl frightened him more than he wanted to admit. Naruto's voice had gone a full octave deeper, and when he spoke, it was hard to say who was speaking, Naruto or the Kyuubi.

Naruto broke the grip on Sasuke's right hand and punched Sasuke right on the side of his face. With Kyuubi's chakra coursing through him, his strength had been enhanced so much that Sasuke was sent crashing into the wall of the valley so hard that cracks spread from the point where he impacted, roughly in the shape of spider's web.

Sasuke shook his head. That strike had hurt more than he expected, but not enough to cause anything more than some minor pain. A roar caused him to look up, and his jaw dropped when a full _pillar _of orange chakra shot up from Naruto into the sky, and cracks appeared on the ground due the sheer density and the force of the chakra. When the pillar subsided, Sasuke observed the changes in Naruto.

His hair had gotten wilder, with more spikes standing up. His eyes were red, and the whisker marks, which Naruto didn't have since the chunin exams were back, only much more thicker. Sasuke was willing to bet that Naruto's canines had sharpened as well, even if his lips were closed. He was surrounded by an orange cloak of chakra, which clung to him like a second skin. His aura and posture _screamed_ of power, and for the first time in the fight, Sasuke felt a little scared.

'**If the fool is so hell bent on trying to show off his power-' **Kurama said.

'_-It's only fair that we show him some of ours,' _Naruto agreed.

Naruto allowed a full tail's worth of chakra to flow in him. He was willing to bet that Kurama's one tail contained more power that what Sasuke had right now. Sasuke cautiously took a step forward, "Naruto?"

He never saw the blow coming.

The beating that followed for the next five minutes was the worst that Sasuke had ever gone through. Naruto was relentless, not giving even one opening, and rained blow after blow on Sasuke. Sasuke tried to use his form's speed to get some breath, but Naruto quickly proved to be much, _much _faster than him in his own form. Either he was caught by pure speed, or he just happened to be unlucky enough to be near one of Naruto's Hiraishin kunai. Naruto was literally a blur, and even Sasuke's sharingan was unable to catch or predict his movements, because they were very fast, and very erratic, not to mention very painful.

By the end of five minutes, Sasuke knew that he had no chance of winning this fight through power. Naruto had proved that he was way ahead in that regard. Skill was out as well, as Naruto's arsenal was bigger than his own. He had less than a fourth of his chakra left, after which his current form would be gone.

His only option left was deceit. And he knew just what to do.

Naruto was enjoying pummeling Sasuke with his strength. It served the bastard right. He did not hold back at all, because he wanted Sasuke to know that he was the one with more power among them. He could hold this form for over forty minutes, which meant forty minutes of pure beating. But he was willing to give the guy a last chance to surrender. He walked down on the wall towards him slowly, like a predator stalking a prey.

"_**Ready to give up yet?"**_

Sasuke, who was bleeding from small cuts, had various bruises forming all over his body, snarled and sprang upward with the intention of snapping the blonde's throat for good. But Naruto simply flashed to a kunai fifty meters behind Sasuke, in a crouched position, sideways on the wall of the alley.

'_I can't go on for much longer. This form won't last beyond two more minutes, and even that's pushing it. I've used up nearly all my chakra, dammit!'_

He turned around and spoke slowly, in a drawl, hiding the pain from his voice. "Let's end this, Naruto. One finishing move. The one who remains standing wins."

Naruto also stood up, spinning a Hiraishin kunai in his left index finger as if he was bored with all the fighting. He rose an eyebrow at the suggestion. _**"Indeed, let's end this useless fight, so I can finally drag you back to Konoha."**_

The growl was as menacing as ever, but Sasuke didn't let that deter him. He smirked. "That's yet to be decided."

He charged up a chidori in his left hand, but this time the chakra changed from pure crackling white to a sort of grey with a white center. Naruto narrowed his eyes, and a rasengan came into existence on his right hand. The rasengan was bigger than his palm, and the most curious thing that Naruto found about it was its color. It was a purple, which was rather puzzling since neither his nor Kurama's chakra was purple in color. Perhaps a mix of them?

They stared at each other, and both took off at the same time. Naruto ran sideways along the wall of the valley, while Sasuke used his wings/arms to fly equally sideways. They were five meters from each other when Naruto threw the kunai in his left hand towards Sasuke's head, who just tilted it aside to let it pass by harmlessly. Time slowed down when they were right in front of each other.

Sasuke thrust his arm forward, making it seem like it was going to collide with the rasengan, which was still on level with Naruto's shoulder. He changed the course of his arm, so that the chidori would not collide with the rasengan, but drive itself straight through Naruto's heart.

This was his moment of victory. His arm inched forward towards Naruto's chest, but Naruto still kept eye contact with Sasuke, who was grinning sadistically. The chidori would strike Naruto's chest before the rasengan could meet it. The rasengan would still collide on his arm, but that was way better than having it on the chest.

'_Victory is mine!'_

Just as the chidori was about to make contact, it happened.

Naruto _vanished._

Sasuke's eyes showed great shock as his chidori passed through nothing but air. He was only able to express it for a moment, when an enormous force slammed in the middle of his back, driving him so that he sunk _into _the rock wall. He gave a grunt of pain, and then he realized what had happened.

'_Shit! He teleported to the kunai he threw?!'_

As if sensing Sasuke's thoughts, Naruto said, _**"That was my Flying Thunder God: Level 2!"**_

He then fully slammed the rasengan on top of him. The impact and the power behind the rasengan was so great that an entire part of the valley's wall collapsed. The wall cracked and shattered into smaller rocks that came down like rain.

Naruto had snatched the victory from Sasuke by a landslide, quite literally.

Naruto had flashed away as soon as the rocks had started raining. He watched with no small amount of pride that it was due to _his _power the wall had shattered.

'**Don't forget it was my power that you wielded, brat.'**

Naruto grinned ferally, _'You know what they say: A weapon is only as good as its wielder.'_

The destruction was truly magnificent, if he had to admit. He flash stepped to one of the bigger rocks, his senses finding Sasuke buried between some of them. He stood with a straight back and watched as some of the rocks shifted, revealing Sasuke who was struggling to stand up. His back was surprisingly devoid of any heavy bruises; it seemed that the second skin offered some level of enhanced durability held out against the rasengan. It still had bruises all over though, with a small marking on the middle of his back. He closed the reservoir inside, allowing his own chakra to flow through him once again.

His knees were wobbling as he heaved deep breaths. It hurt so bad that Sasuke was barely holding out from crying. The force of that rasengan was such that if not for his second form, Sasuke was sure that the rasengan would have likely killed him by destroying his spine. It was a painful realization that Naruto had, after all, not held back against him.

He lifted his head, and he was so exhausted that he could not even bring himself to be jealous, angry, irritated or frustrated at the sight. Naruto was standing on a rock calmly, without any semblance of exhaustion on him. Wind was gently blowing around them, blowing Naruto's bangs to the side. Just for a second, Sasuke thought that Naruto looked exactly like his father.

The he vanished _again._

He appeared right in front of Sasuke, slamming a palm right into his stomach. Sasuke's knees buckled, and he finally lost consciousness as he fell against Naruto.

Naruto held Sasuke and gently laid him down on the ground. "That paralysis seal should keep you from running until we reach Konoha."

He was about to sit down to rest for five minutes himself when the distinct sound of footsteps reached his ears. It was faint, but he glanced upwards and was rather surprised to see Kabuto's face peering down at the valley, coming to rest on him. Looked like he was here to collect Sasuke from him.

_Ha._

Naruto grinned and held up a Hiraishin kunai towards Kabuto, to see if that would scare him or not. Even his right hand came up as if he were about to form a rasengan.

The resident, politely sarcastic look was promptly wiped from his face, replaced by a small amount of fear. He turned and walked away, no doubt to report to his master.

Naruto put the kunai back in his pouch and sat down in front of Sasuke's for some rest. The fight had been exhilarating, easily the best and the most enjoyable fight he had ever been in, and he did not regret the hurt he bestowed upon Sasuke at all. In fact, in his opinion, the Uchiha could use some humbling, that the world did not revolve for him.

There was a sound of thunder, and Naruto looked up with a smile as rain gently poured over both of them. It worked like magic, for Naruto's muscles seemingly relaxed on their own. It wiped the dirt from his body and face and the best thing was, that it felt like a reward to him. All the hard work he put in this mission, and this was the reward. The thought of his team flashed into his mind and a frown of concern crossed over his features. He could only hope that reinforcements from Suna had reached his team in time.

So lost he was in his thoughts that his head jerked up from its resting position on his hands when he heard the voice. "Naruto?"

He smiled tiredly, "You sure took your time, Kakashi."

For once, Kakashi did not have a lame excuse. In fact, he did not have any excuse at all.

His luck had been the worst for the last two days. The first thing he heard after returning from an A-rank mission was: "Sasuke has left the village to join Orochimaru. Naruto and Shik-"

The second he heard "Naruto" he had ran out. He had always known that it would always come down to Naruto and Sasuke. He was puzzled as to how it happened. For the past few days, Sasuke had seemed content with his place in the village, and had developed bonds with his peers. So what the hell happened.

He had chased relentlessly after his two students in a very unfair time frame, hoping to stop it before it was too late.

_**Flashback**_

"_Kakashi!" Kakashi looked down at Pakkun, who ran at his side. "It's up ahead- I can smell the small amounts of blood. I also smell snakes, but not Orochimaru. The other guy…."_

_A small relief went through him at the mention that blood was only spilled in small amounts. Then his eye narrowed. "Kabuto," he murmured. Was Kabuto sent in case Naruto defeated Sasuke?_

"_He is going away!"_

_Kakashi doubled his pace and reached at the valley, looking down at a site that nearly dropped him in relief and filled him up with dread._

_Sasuke was laid on the ground on his back, eyes closed. He looked peaceful, too peaceful actually. Then there was Naruto, who was sitting with his head resting on his hands._

_He dropped down and tentatively approached them, and only then he saw the seal on Sasuke's stomach. He relaxed a bit, knowing Naruto had put a seal on Sasuke to prevent him from escaping. He winced though, upon seeing the amount of abuse Sasuke's body had taken, no doubt by the hands of Naruto._

"_Naruto?"_

_**Flashback end**_

He gestured to Sasuke. "Is he…..?"

Naruto nodded, "Unconscious, and will stay that way for quite a while."

Kakashi gave a nod of understanding and looked around. The damage was enough to be visible. An entire section of the wall of the valley had been shattered to pieces. "I really thought you would have less trouble bringing him in, considering your knowledge of seals and Hiraishin."

Naruto gave a snort and nodded. "I would have, but this was more than a mission for me. Both of us wanted to see where we stood in regard to each other."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but remained silent. It was no secret to him that despite of being his superior, in terms of rank and power, Naruto shared a rivalry with Sasuke. It was mostly on Sasuke's part, but if there was one person in Konoha that Naruto wouldn't refuse to fight with all his power, it was Sasuke. The bond they shared was…strange and rather un-understandable.

"And what have you found out?"

A small smile appeared on Naruto's face, as if being reminded of a joke. "He still has a few ways to go."

Kakashi could not help the snort that escaped him. "I can see that." Looking around, he found one thing out of place. "Where's Kabuto?"

"Oh, he did come here to collect Sasuke, but I scared him away."

The statement sounded completely absurd. The right hand man of Orochimaru, scared away?

"Apparently, he still remembers the rasengan I drove into his gut."

….That sounded believable. Anyone would keep their distance to avoid a repetition of _that._

Naruto frowned. "What happened to my team?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I don't know. I really just came to….." _stop the both of you from killing each other._

Naruto nodded in understanding and stood up in a smooth movement. "I hope you don't mind carrying him, Kakashi. I am a bit tired, and in need of attention from my wife."

Kakashi did not mind at all. In fact, he was ready to carry Naruto as well, should the blonde drop in exhaustion. But Naruto looked like he had barely been in a scuffle, unlike Sasuke. The guy could imitate a dead guy right now.

Naruto flashed to all of his markers, collecting his kunai. He really should figure out a better way to do this, rather than flashing to everywhere. Unnecessary waste of chakra. Maybe he could summon them? A summoning contract for the Flying Thunder God? He filed that thought away for later.

He came back to Kakashi and turned to him. "Let's go."

**Omake 1:**

"Did you see that? He totally got that from me! In your face, Uchiha!"

Fugaku was really not in a good mood. Here he was, in heaven, with his wife, enjoying a quiet lunch, when he was informed that his son has deserted the village.

Quickly, his wife and he rushed to their television, which allowed them to watch their sons every now and then. Surprisingly, he found the Yondaime hokage and his wife at their house as well. Kushina, the ever chippy Uzumaki, replied, "Both of our children are on the TV."

Fugaku and Mikoto were horrified that Sasuke was going to Orochimaru of all people to gain power to kill Itachi. Mikoto looked ready to cry, and Fugaku hated the fact that he could do nothing but watch.

But both of them were surprised when they learned that Kushina and Minato's son was in charge of the mission to bring Sasuke back. Ever since they had learned that Naruto had made jonin, Kushina had been extremely proud and happy. So much that she took every opportunity to gloat about it. Minato did no such thing, but his eyes shined with pride every time the talk was about his son.

Mikoto, his dear, sweet wife, took Kushina's gloating in stride, long used to her best friend's habits. But Fugaku never liked the fact that Naruto was the genius that was being compared to the likes of his father and his older son. Sasuke was always a bit too slow in his eyes. Maybe that came from having a genius for his older son.

They all watched the fight between their sons with mixed expressions. Minato was unbearably smug of the fact that his son was capable of tricking and out speeding the sharingan.

The fight came to the current point, where Naruto had executed the brilliant plan of punching Sasuke with the force of a freight train. Minato was shaking his head at his son's straight forwardness and lack of efficiency in the plan, but couldn't deny the results. If not for Orochimaru's seal, Sasuke would not have been able to get up again.

But Kushina was all too happy to gloat. Even Fugaku couldn't deny that such a blunt plan could only have been thought up by someone who was related to Kushina.

Then came the horror.

Both the Uchiha, well, only Mikoto, but Fugaku was close, cried when they saw what their son had become. Even Kushina had tears in her eyes.

Both the parents watched how Naruto was basically tossed around effortlessly by Sasuke for a while. Then Minato and Kushina cheered up on seeing the power of the Kyuubi coursing through their son.

It was a literal smackdown after Naruto harnessed the bijuu chakra. Sasuke stood no chance at all.

But the shock came when Minato, who was generally a very cool person, stood up and cheered. "YES!"

The reason for that was Naruto had used the Hiraishin in the same manner Minato had to take down the rogue Uchiha all those years ago. The irony of that statement was not lost on any of them.

Kushina smiled wistfully when the TV switched off. "I guess he really is more of your son than mine."

Minato, the ever loving husband, wrapped an arm around his wife and kissed her cheek. "He is _our _son, Kushina. Not just mine, or yours, but _ours." _

Kushina smiled and nodded. "And he really took my words to heart about finding a woman like me."

**Omake 2:**

Madara cursed as he handed over the money to Hashirama, who smiled goofily. "As if there was any doubt."

Madara scoffed at his rival's statement. "You were just lucky, Hashirama. I am beyond ashamed that my descendent needed foul power such as that to try and beat yours."

Tobirama spoke up from behind them, approval lacing his tone. "Now _that, _is what I call a good use of my jutsu."

Madara glared at the white haired Senju, who had turned his head and was innocently whistling. While you may think Tobirama was proud of Naruto's maneuver, Madara clearly knew that Tobirama only found joy in the fact that Naruto brought the wall down on an Uchiha.

Madara turned away from both of them, watching the sun. It was only a matter of a few years before he was revived. Until then, he would have to endure, as painful as it was.

**AN: How was that? I hope I did not stretch the fact too much, but I had fun writing the fight. Leave your answer in your reviews!**


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 29

**AN: Hey guys! Man, I'm so glad to be back! A few things before we begin. First, I would like to confirm that yes, this is the last chapter of this story. Honestly, I am very proud of myself to not have chickened out in the middle of this story. There have been a few people who have told me that this is somewhat of an achievement, to complete a Hiraishin story without abandoning it.**

**That would have been a disappointment.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed the story, even though there have been a few cringe-worthy chapters. I have revealed that Shippuden is a go, because honestly, it would be a crime to not extend this story beyond part 1. But fair warning, I'll be on quite a long break after this story is finished. I need to arrange the events of Shippuden in order for me to write them down without getting confused.**

**You guys are welcome to help, if you want.**

**Another warning, you guys know my MO by now. I put a character in pre-existing situations to see the outcome, or change the situation to suit my story. Most would call that plot convenience, but I try to make it as realistic as possible. Deviating from plot to create a new story is a daunting task for anyone, which is why I don't take that risk. At least, not yet. Consider this as forewarning for Shippuden.**

**I will continue my other story at AO3. For now, crack on!**

**P.S: I almost forgot! I will be doing a one-shot after this, of Naruto meeting with Team Minato and his mother. I really want to see how it would turn out! In fact, I'm more excited to write that than this chapter! If anyone wants to see Naruto in another comical situation such as that, or any situation, pm me.**

Kabuto's face showed an annoyed facial expression as he jumped through the trees. It had been almost an hour since he sent Kimimaro to retrieve Sasuke in case the sound four had been delayed by Konoha's own retrieval team, but no one had returned.

He had been forced to organize a death match on a short notice to select a new body for Orochimaru-sama. While he may have been adamant that he will only have Sasuke's body, he could not deny that the current body had been failing rapidly, despite his insistence that he could hold on. Kabuto had Orochimaru-sama change bodies with the lone survivor of the death match, and on his orders, immediately departed from the base to get Sasuke-kun. And like most of his missions, he had gone alone.

While Kabuto had confidence that he could hold his own against someone of Kakashi's caliber, he was not a spy for nothing. His observational and analytical skills were unparalleled, and so he put it to good use.

Konoha had recently survived an invasion, which was what Orochimaru-sama had based the retrieval mission on. With Konoha rebuilding itself, it would no doubt be sending most of its elite force out of the village on missions, to maintain its image. The point being, Konoha had no team at the moment that could stand up to Sound four _and _retrieve Sasuke, which meant that the missions should have gone off without a problem.

However, Kabuto suspected that Tsunade had sent a retrieval team, and a competent one at that, if it could hold out Sound four for this long. The jonin and chunin would be out on missions, and genin had no chance of going on an A-rank missions such as this one…..or did they?

Knowing how paranoid the village was about the Sharingan being under their control, they would send out any shinobi that they had.

The only genin that Kabuto could think of were Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Shino, Kiba and Naruto. Of all of them, only Neji and Naruto stood a decent chance against one of the sound four. But Naruto had large reserves of chakra, large enough to spam shadow clones without worry, and he had a good idea of what stealth was about, if the way he saved Hayate from Baki was any indication. And, he was ridiculously good, as he had been able to dispatch him off without any trouble.

That had been a painful day.

Kabuto dropped to the ground and continued running. He was about half a mile away from the border that separated fire and rice country. He only hoped that Kimimaro had succeeded. That guy was on a whole another level from the Sound four, so there should be no reason to worry. But Kabuto couldn't shake the bad feeling from his stomach.

He arrived at the valley of the end, and his eyes widened.

The valley had honestly seen better days. Chunks of rocks had been torn from the walls, and Kabuto's attention was instantly drawn to a specific part of the valley.

A whole section of the wall had collapsed, from the looks of it. There was a small mountain of rocks on the ground, but that wasn't all. Kabuto spotted his target for the first time, and was utterly shocked. In fact, now that he thought, he miscalculated just how formidable Naruto was.

It looked like Sasuke had tried to beat Naruto and lost, badly. The poor guy looked like he had been through the grinder, and then some. Naruto, on his side, gave Kabuto quite a shock. He hadn't known that Naruto had been promoted, to jonin no less. Though it made sense, since it was Naruto who took him out of the fight with a single move, and it was probably Naruto who felled the wall with his Rasengan.

There hadn't been such a devastating fight in this valley since the legendary statues were alive. Then Naruto looked at him, and he gave a sneer. Best case scenario, he was worn out after his fight with Sasuke, and he could probably take him. To his astonishment, Naruto grinned and lifted his three-pronged kunai and lifted his palm, in a very familiar gesture.

It took Kabuto a mere second to make his decision and turn back. Clearly, Naruto hadn't been that exhausted that he wouldn't be able to fight. He still remembered the devastating amount of pain he had inflicted on Kabuto, and as much loyal he was to Orochimaru-sama, he wasn't about take a beating like that again. Naruto would probably finish him off this time.

Orochimaru-sama won't be happy.

XXXXXXX

After almost half an hour of walking, Naruto signaled Kakashi to take to the trees. The sooner they got to the village, the better. As they jumped through the trees, Naruto made four shadow clones, who disappeared into _shunshin _as soon as they came into existence.

"To check on my team," he spoke before Kakashi could ask the question. He was worried about them. He did not want a casualty on his first mission. They sped through the trees without any intention to stop. The mission had been successful, but Naruto wanted to know the costs he had paid, if any.

The gates came into their view just as the sun took its leave from the sky. Naruto sighed in relief as he dropped from the tree to the ground, Kakashi following his lead. They walked the rest of the way, both of them organizing their thoughts into order.

Naruto's eyes became a little more alert when he saw who was standing at the gates. The Hokage, the jonin commander, Nara Shikaku, a team of medic-nin, his vice-captain for the mission, Gaara, Kankuro and his wife. Why was his wife standing at the gates, looking a little dirty in her changed battle attire? And why did Shikamaru look as if he was seconds away from breaking down?

Naruto could spot the expressions of relief on Tsunade's and Shikaku-sama's faces when they saw Kakashi holding Sasuke's body in a fireman's carry. Surprisingly though, it was Shikamaru who walked towards him first before the medic-nin took their cue and rushed towards them as well. Kakashi handed Sasuke over to them before motioning one of them towards Naruto.

Naruto simply waved a hand to the nin, signaling that he's fine, before turning his attention to Shikamaru. One look at his face told Naruto everything, and his gut felt ten times heavier. Steeling himself, he asked in a quiet voice, "Casualties?"

"No," Shikamaru's voice had a slight waver in it. "But we came damn close."

Naruto struggled to not hold the guilt on himself. He tried to tell himself that the circumstances were against them, that their team was not ready for a mission such as this, but the fact that he was the team leader, and that his team was so gravely injured under his command somehow amplified the guilt inside.

Naruto bit his lip and said, "I know I sound like an asshole, but don't take it too hard on yourself, Shika. You know as well as I do that this team of genin was not ready for a mission such as this. This mission should only have had jonin or chunin, but not genin. We were underprepared for this mission."

Shikamaru gave him a look of disbelief. A hint of anger appeared on his face, "Neji and Kiba almost lost their lives, and you're saying that don't take it hard on myself?!"

Naruto mentally shook his head. Shikamaru was not thinking straight right now. His emotions were clouding his ability of judgement. "We'll talk later about this, Shika. Tell me, did the back up make it on time?"

Shikamaru clearly didn't agree with the change in topic, but answered him. "They made it just in time. Gaara managed to save Lee just before he was killed, while Kankuro saved Kiba from Sakon, and your wife dropped the forest on Tayuya to save me."

Naruto's head immediately snapped to Temari, an incredulous look on his face. Just why had Tsunade allowed Temari in the field so soon?!

Now that he thought about it, his night with her should have left her limping for quite a while, the good kind of sore.

Abandoning the train of thought and resolving to talk to her later, he reflected upon Shikamaru's words. A surge of pride went through his chest when he realized that his beautiful, sweet wife had killed one of the Sound four by dropping an entire forest with her wind jutsu. If he had known that Sasuke would leave, he would have waited one night to do the deed. She would have been a valuable member of the retrieval team.

Naruto smirked and just wrapped an arm around Shikamaru's shoulders. "Don't underestimate my wife, Shika. It might prove painful to you. On the other hand," he gave a pointed look to the Nara, "let this be a lesson to you. Strategy is useless if someone could simply overpower you. You gotta train more, man."

Instead of gaping at him for the abrupt nonchalance, Shikamaru simply raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be worried about your wife going into the field?"

"I'm not going to hold her back out of overprotectiveness, Shika. Temari is more than capable of taking care of herself."

He ignored Shikarmu's "troublesome" and reached Tsunade, giving her a lazy salute. "Mission accomplished, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded in approval, "I knew you could do it, Naruto. I will see your report on my desk tomorrow morning, I suppose? Along with a personal account?"

Naruto gave her a frown. "Personal account?"

Tsunade glanced at Shikaku, who continued, "We need to know the level of resistance Sasuke showed, in order for us to decide how sever his punishment should be."

Naruto scoffed as he replied, "You don't need a personal account for _that. _Just take a look at how much I had to beat him up to bring him back. I _literally _caved his back in with a rasengan."

He did not wait to see their reactions to that, moving towards his wife. Temari had her arms crossed across her chest, watching him with a careful look. A small amount of concern flashed across her chest when she noted the slight tears in his sleeves and track pants. The bruises on his face had already healed, thanks to Kurama. "Are you alright?"

Naruto gave a tired smile to her. He might act aloof, but even he suffered the mental repercussions of beating his former teammate almost to death. "I am, but I need some rest."

Temari smiled back, "That you do." She gently grabbed his hand, "Let's go home."

Naruto smiled and flashed both of them to their living room, where Temari immediately went to their room to put her fan away. Naruto removed his footwear, and sank into the couch with a groan. The journey back hadn't been exactly tiring, but Naruto thought that this particular A-rank took more out of him than he expected. His mind flashed back to what Shikamaru had told him- half of their team was in a critical condition.

If only he had a proper team….

Naruto got up from the couch. Best not to continue that line of thought. He would probably have nightmares tonight anyway, so best not to add on to that. He went to his bedroom and entered just as Temari was putting on a large, loose t-shirt, giving him a flash of her creamy back, but Naruto had too much on his mind for those things right now.

Instead, he just started removing his own uniform. "I heard you dropped the forest on the red headed kunoichi."

Temari scoffed as she untied the ponytails in her hair. "That bitch had it coming. You should tell that Nara to train a bit more. Strategy won't help him every time."

Naruto nodded as he took off his t-shirt. "Maybe this experience will give him some motivation to train rather than lazing around all day."

Temari hummed absently as she walked up to Naruto, wrapping her arms around his front, kissing his neck lightly from behind him.

Naruto sighed as he leaned into his wife's hold. For the first time, Temari heard Naruto speaking in such a…_defeated _voice, and it shocked her. "We almost lost Neji and Kiba today, Temari. If only I had been-"

Temari swiftly turned him around and gently held his face. "You will not blame yourself for this mission, Naruto," she sternly told him. "You did the best you could with what you had. The others knew the risks of the mission before they agreed to it, so you don't need to drown yourself in guilt."

She gave him a soft kiss. "Tsunade-sama is the best medic there is, so you don't need to worry."

Naruto allowed Temari to drag him to their bed, and once the lights were turned off, he was held by his wife as she whispered sweet things in his ears, all the while gently rocking him. Naruto would have verbally appreciated her singing voice if he wasn't gradually pulled into the dark abyss of sleep.

XXXXXXX

Morning came, and surprisingly, it was Temari who opened her eyes first. She blinked the sleep out of them and looked at the bedside clock.

It was ten in the morning.

'_Huh,' _was all she could think at the moment. She turned back to see Naruto soundly asleep, his hand still wrapped around her waist.

Naruto had slept soundly the whole night, for which Temari gave herself a mental pat on the back. She didn't know what had happened between Naruto and his former teammate, but it had been something that had mentally exhausted the blonde. Nightmares were sure to come, but physical comfort is very much effective against those.

She tried to gently pry herself away from Naruto's hold, intending to make some breakfast for the both of them. But even in sleep, Naruto was unwilling to let her go, as his hands tightened in response to her movement. A few more attempts later, which were all unsuccessful, she gave it up all together, resigning herself to her husband's hold.

"Glad that you realized."

The voice, that was rough from the night of sleep, spoke in an amused whisper. Temari jerked around, seeing Naruto's sleepy, but clearly amused expression. "You were awake the whole time?"

"You weren't exactly keeping it subtle."

Temari was about to reply to his taunt, when she felt something poking her on her thigh. She didn't have to look down to confirm it for what it was, instead she just gave him a raised eyebrow.

To his credit, Naruto didn't get embarrassed at all. This was his own wife, dammit! "What?"

Temari chose not to deign that not-so-innocent question with an answer and got out of his hold, out of the bed. She stretched, working out the kinks from her back and giving Naruto a great view of her derriere. He pushed the covers back, standing up as well. He had had over twelve hours of sleep, after all. He had work to do.

Temari was going to her closet to get some clothes out for her shower, when a pair of hands encircled her waist from behind, drawing her into a warm body. She moaned as pleasure assaulted her from three different places, all at once.

Naruto nibbled on her earlobe, while his hands drifted upwards under her t-shirt to fondle her breasts, and his growing arousal pressed into her posterior. "Say, do you have anything important to do today?"

"Not exactly," she breathed out as Naruto began humping into her.

"Good." That was all he said before he slowly pulled the t-shirt over her head, leaving her completely naked except for her panties. He turned her around and lifted her up, her legs automatically wrapping around his waist for support. Without another word, he initiated a tongue battle, which Temari returned enthusiastically as they made their way to the shower.

After spending almost a whole hour inside, they finally exited and got dressed. Naruto was wearing his uniform as he was supposed to report to Tsunade and most probably, the council. The written report of the mission would have to wait, as he had forgotten to form a clone to do it. Temari finished getting dressed and together, they both exited the house, preferring to walk instead of just flashing there.

Naruto looked at his wife curiously. "So how were you sent as back up for my team?"

Temari frowned on how to reply to that. "Tsunade-sama was already aware of whom to call for back up, thanks to you. But I wasn't, so I was rather surprised when she called me to her office and asked whether I could be part of the back up being sent to your team.

"I was perplexed, however, as to why she specifically asked me. But that confusion cleared up when she told me that my brothers were making their way from Suna, so I immediately agreed," she explained, to which Naruto gave a sound of realization.

"Sorry if it sounds offensive, but I thought you would sore from our activities to participate in the mission," Naruto remarked as he rubbed his neck with a sheepish smile.

Temari smirked at him, "I was, but there is someone in this village whom you call a grandma, after all. And she just happens to be the greatest medic in the world."

Naruto nodded seriously, completely missing the snarking tone in her voice. That made complete sense. Although, he would have to find a way to make messages travel faster. Birds are just too slow…

They both reached the Hokage tower, and saw that many shinobi were hustling around as if in a hurry. Naruto gave them no mind as he proceeded directly to Tsunade's office. He wondered just what sort of information Tsunade needed from him to decide the punishment of the Uchiha. Then again, if he had written his report on time, his own account wouldn't have been needed at all.

Oh well, he had three days to hand in his report. No pressure.

They reached the door to the Hokage's office. Naruto knocked on it, opening it only when Tsunade told him to come in. Once inside, he merely raised an eyebrow at Shikaku-sama's presence. He rarely saw the jonin commander, and not to mention, he had the impression that Nara males were not supposed to up before noon. Shikaku-sama should be sleeping right now, considering all he has to do is paperwork. He walked forward until he was standing beside Shikamaru, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. The elders were in the room as well, including Danzo. That put Naruto on edge, because Naruto always felt that there was something that the mummified elder was hiding.

Temari closed the door behind and made to stand beside Naruto. Tsunade nodded and said, "Alright, now that everyone has been assembled, Shikamaru," making the chunin look at her, "I would like to hear your account of the mission."

Shikamaru's verbal report was not entirely unprofessional, except there were too many mentions of "troublesome." Then again, it didn't surprise Tsunade. Although, no one failed to notice the tightness in his voice when he delivered his report. He, like Naruto, had experienced for the first time how it felt to almost lose their comrades, even though they didn't. Naruto hastily pushed back the images his mind was conjuring of Neji and Kiba on their death beds. He didn't need that now.

Temari delivered her report, though hers was extremely short, consisting of merely pursuit and execution. Finally, Tsunade asked him to deliver his part of the report. Naruto described in detail on how he was pursued by Orochimaru's supposedly most powerful subordinate, and the bloodline he possessed. How his fight with him was cut short due to Lee's arrival, and how he pursued Sasuke after that.

The description of their fight was similar. Naruto described how Sasuke did not hold back against him at all, and fully tried to kill him. The elders in the room tensed as he told them how he had been forced to resort to using Kyuubi's chakra by Sasuke's second level transformation of the cursed seal.

After he finished his report, the room descended into silence as everyone tried to organize their thoughts into order. Finally, it was Danzo who broke the silence.

"You said you had to resort to using Kyuubi's chakra to stop him, correct?"

Naruto lifted his head up slightly at the question. "Yes. The power of Sasuke's transformation was far too much for me to handle, and Hiraishin was proving inadequate, which is why I used it."

Naruto had to admit, the elder's face could have very well been made from stone. There was nothing readable on his face. "By saying that you were forced to resort to bijuu chakra, you mean to say that you can access the demon's chakra at will? And control it?"

Naruto was getting uneasy at how much focus was being shifted onto him. Wasn't this meeting supposed to be about deciding Sasuke's punishment? In the end, he gave a single nod.

"And how much did you use?"

"...A full tail's worth of chakra."

Suffice to say, it was all he could do to keep his eyes from rolling when Homura and Kotaru tensed up, contempt welling up in their eyes. Danzo, however, merely nodded and went silent after that.

That unnerved Naruto far more than he was willing to show.

"I fail to see why you would want to know that, elder Danzo, considering that we're only here to decide Uchiha Sasuke's punishment after listening to my husband's report of his resistance," Temari remarked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Koharu stepped forward at the statement, a disapproving frown on her face at Temari's daring tone. "We find that rather hard to believe, that you can access and control the beast's chakra at will. You see, our previous jinchuriki was also thought to be fully keeping the Kyuubi's chakra in check. However, the jinchuriki went on a rampage during the third war, and it was unable to discern friend and foe."

It was because Naruto had his hands folded behind his back that they couldn't see his clenched fists. He took a deep breath and replied, "I assure you, that I was fully in control of myself. Trust me, if it were the other way around, Sasuke wouldn't be alive right now. And secondly," he fixed the elders with a stern gaze that bordered on a glare, "I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about my mother like she was just some sort of beast that went wild."

The elders bristled at his tone. Homura retorted, "Uzumaki Kushina-"

"-was a hero who served this village without expecting, or _getting, _any form of thanks," Naruto interrupted, his face carefully blank. "My mother was a hero, and while I would love to talk about how she has been completely forgotten for her services, that's not why we are here."

He then turned towards Tsunade, completely ignoring the sputtering elder. The Hokage's eyes were twinkling with amusement, but became serious as Naruto addressed her. "I have completed my report, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded, "Good. Based on your report, as much as I would like to say and believe it, Uchiha Sasuke was acting on his own will, instead of being influenced by the curse seal. His intentions were to desert Konohagakure no sato and join Orochimaru. Not only that, but he also attacked a superior officer in an attempt to kill him." At that, she looked towards Shikaku-sama, "What punishment do you propose, Shikaku?"

The jonin commander stroked his beard, "To be frank, Hokage-sama, becoming a missing-nin automatically gets you a death sentence. However," he continued when he saw the elders ready to protest and more importantly, Naruto closing his eyes in apparent resignation, "Since Uchiha Sasuke is the last bearer of the sharingan, that we have under our control, it would be unwise to completely finish it off. Therefore, I suggest that he be kept in heavy imprisonment for one year, and upon his release, be suspended from shinobi duties for six months, during which he be subjected to psychological sessions to address past trauma and adjust his mental conditioning, because kami knows the kid needs it. Lastly, upon his resuming of duties, he be put on probation for another six months."

Silence descended in the office as the elders, excluding Danzo, looked at Shikaku in disbelief. Tsunade seemed to be thinking it through, and Naruto gazed at Shikamaru in his peripheral gaze, finding the Nara actually paying attention with sharp eyes. Naruto didn't fault his friend if he wanted execution, because he didn't understand Sasuke like Naruto did. After all, pursuing Sasuke did almost cause the death of half of their team.

Temari was standing stone faced, eyes straight. She really didn't know what to think about the entire situation. Deserting your village automatically gets you a death sentence, no matter how important you are. But apparently, the sharingan was apparently to important to the village to just be finished off. It was perplexing her, that just how far Konoha was willing to go for the Uchiha.

Naruto was inwardly relieved. He had feared that Sasuke would be executed, as per protocol, and he was ready to defend his friend, but it seemed that there was no need to. In his opinion, two years of retirement was way better than being killed. It was somewhat a burden off his shoulders.

Tsunade finally came to a decision. "While that seems reasonable, I think its better if we bring it down to six months of imprisonment, instead of one year."

Koharu stepped forward, "Hokage-sama, in my opinion even that seems a bit harsh. Perhaps just a six month imprisonment, followed by one month of probation?"

Surprisingly, Temari was the one who stepped forward against that suggestion. "Koharu-sama, the foremost punishment, when it concerns a missing nin, is death. And that goes for every missing nin. The punishment is already a lot more lenient by not executing him right away, instead choosing to preserve a bloodline. Do you mean to say that you would speak against execution for any other missing nin from Konoha, or is it just Uchiha Sasuke?"

The silence from the elder told everyone that Temari had been spot on.

"As it stands, by giving him this punishment, Hokage-sama is already in the danger of being accused of showing favoritism inside the shinobi forces. The only reason that accusation _could _be swept aside is that the missing nin in question is an Uchiha, and as such, the last, _potentially _loyal sharingan under the village's control," Naruto continued, inwardly pumping a fist at his wife's argument. She sure knew how to put people down.

"Naruto is correct," Tsunade agreed, much to the displeasure of the elders. Inwardly smirking, she continued, "That is the only reason Uchiha Sasuke has not been punished by death. However, by not executing him does not mean the alternate punishment will be light. My punishment stands- six months of prison, followed by six months of suspension and psychological recovery and conditioning, followed by six months of probation. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

The elders, excluding Danzo, raised their hands. Tsunade rolled her eyes and her next question was practically dripping with sarcasm. "Does anyone _else _have a problem?"

When no one raised their hands, Tsunade nodded and turned to the jonin commander. "Sasuke will have finished recovering by the end of next week. Make sure he is immediately transferred to prison after his discharge."

Shikaku bowed. "As you wish, Tsunade-sama."

"The if we have no further business, this meeting is adjourned."

As the elders and Shikaku-sama left, Naruto stayed behind to discuss something private with Tsunade. When everyone had left, he stepped forward, "Hokage-sama, can you tell me when I would be able to visit him?"

Tsunade's expression turned grim as she looked at him. "Sorry Naruto, but Sasuke is under intensive care right now. You may not know it, but almost every bone in his body was at least cracked, if not broken. I'd say he was extremely lucky that he was in the second level of his transformation, otherwise I don't think that his spine would have survived the rasengan that you crashed into his back."

Naruto tried not to show the guilt and horror he was feeling at that. He had given only a moment's thought to the level of damage Sasuke might suffer from the rasengan. He had guessed that the transformation would protect Sasuke from any severe damage. He had only been meaning to disable him, not cripple him entirely.

"If it were anyone else, the rasengan would have grinded the backbone into dust. But otherwise, you should be able to speak with him after five days."

Naruto released a breath of relief. He then bowed to Tsunade and left the office with Temari. Just as they exited the office, they tensed upon hearing the voice behind them, "Might I have a moment of your time, Uzumaki-dono?"

Naruto turned around to see Danzo, the elder staring at him with his expressionless eyes. His eyes drifted downwards to the cane and he inwardly frowned. '_Who's he trying to fool with the old-retired-shinobi act? Only people with walking problems need canes. He's not putting any kind of pressure on it like a man who needs it would.'_

Outwardly, he nodded and turned to Temari. "Go, I'll be right behind you."

Temari was about to protest when Naruto gave her a pointed look. She reluctantly nodded, and walked away. He turned and faced the elder, the slightest hints of annoyance seeping into his voice, "I have several other things to do, Danzo-san, so please make this quick."

Danzo might not admit this to anyone, but the jinchuriki was impressive in his capacity to act as the clan head. He motioned him, "Please follow me to my office. I will try to make this as quick as I can."

The both brisk walked, while Naruto revised everything he had on this man. His father had left a journal, in which a particular section had been dedicated entirely to this man. He had written down that Danzo was fiercely loyal to Konoha, and an extremist to boot. His father had also said that Danzo was after the seat of Hokage, and would do anything to ensure he would become the Hokage.

Given his position as the village's jinchuriki, Naruto guessed that at some point or the other, Danzo might have tried to control him. As they arrived in his office, a thought occurred to Naruto that this could potentially turn out to be a very dangerous situation.

"I'm sure you're curious as to why I've brought you here."

'_So he wants to do it that way? Sorry Danzo, but I plan to end this as quickly as possible.' _Outwardly, he said, "A small part of me is, but let's not waste each other's time. You know who I am, and I know who you are."

Not even a twitch of his facial muscles, but his voice held a thin curiosity. "You do?"

Naruto tilted his head. "I know _what _you _also _are."

A raise of an eyebrow this time. "Do tell."

Naruto refrained from smirking at his next statement. "You are the root that supports the tree that is Konoha."

Now that brought out some reaction, which Naruto relished. His lone eye widened, and his entire posture tensed up. There was no way that Danzo missed the meaning behind his words. The man took a moment to calm himself and then spoke.

"I see…and who else knows of this?"

Naruto shrugged and deliberately gave the man a vague answer. "I wouldn't know. Though I assume there won't be many, since you have gone to some…well, let's say _extreme _lengths, to keep it a secret."

Danzo was inwardly frowning at how much Naruto knew about his operations. "Keep what a secret, Uzumaki-dono?"

Naruto gave a thin smile, "If you deny its existence, why would you be so interested in it?"

Danzo sat back in his chair. That was masterfully played by Uzumaki, he mentally applauded. It would be tricky to get out of this corner. Naruto continued, "But let's not play around. We both know that Root exists, and you are its leader, despite Sandaime's order to shut it down.

"It's your own private army which no one else can control, and if anyone else acquires this information, they might see it as a rebellion on your front to overthrow the Hokage."

Danzo couldn't hide the small flinch. That was a rather bold statement, and he couldn't deny it anymore. He returned, "My operations are always in best interests for the village."

"Then I fail to see how you helped when Orochimaru attacked. I didn't see any Root operatives during the invasion."

Danzo had no reply for that. He had never suspected that someone would ask him this particular question. "I had a-"

"Perhaps you were hoping that the Sandaime would be killed by his former student and would pave the way for you to be Hokage?"

Danzo narrowed his eyes, even though he was inwardly shocked at the unintentional bullseye that Naruto had hit. "You go too far, Uzumaki-dono. Hiruzen was my old friend, and I would never wish for his death."

Naruto exhaled as he leaned back. "If you say so. I think we are done here, Danzo-san. I must get back to my wife now."

"Ah yes, your wife."

That paused Naruto in his seat. He could deal with Danzo's sights upon him, but why would he be interested in Temari?

"What about her?"

"I was wondering if you could tell me when you were planning to honor the treaty by conceiving an heir."

There was a drastic drop in the temperature of the room. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the elder, and Danzo was pretty sure that the Uzumaki was intentionally channeling the cold, dangerous parts of his psyche that he inherited from his father. For the first time in the conversation, there was an air of hostility around the young jonin.

"You can wonder all you want, but I don't see how that is any of your business, Danzo-san. But I will tell you this," Naruto got up from his seat and laid his hands on the table, leaning forward, "Don't poke your nose where it doesn't belong. You cross my path, and I will make you regret it."

Before Danzo could make a retort, Naruto turned and walked out of the office. Danzo had to give it to him, the jinchuriki may not be very subtle when it came to politics, but he had enough subtlety to pass by. And he sure knew how to make a statement. Danzo knew that at the rate he was progressing, Uzumaki would easily become the most powerful ninja of the village in two to three years. Politically, he had the backing of two powerful clans, and Danzo could only hope that Uzumaki didn't do anything that would hinder his plans of becoming Hokage.

"Well played, Uzumaki. But know this, that between you and I, it will be me who comes out on top."

XXXXXXX

Naruto caught up with Temari in a flash, and she didn't so much as flinch at his sudden presence. "What happened?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nothing. Danzo just wanted to play some mind games with me."

"I have to admit, Naruto. That guy gives me a bad feeling in the stomach."

Naruto gently took the begs of vegetables from Temari. "Danzo has plans to be Hokage, Temari, and that is all he cares about. He won't pay even the slightest attention to those he tramples on in his quest. We are nothing but pawns for him to play around with, that is what he believes."

Temari frowned as they walked towards their home. "Pawns, you say? Reminds me of a certain elder back in Suna. I hated that guy."

Naruto smiled slightly, but then became serious again. "He also wanted to know when we were planning on having babies."

Temari choked on air, her face reddening rapidly, though from embarrassment or anger, it was hard to tell. "He what?!"

Naruto shrugged, "That was when I told him to fuck off, in no uncertain terms. I have no doubt that he will be keeping a closer eye on us from now on. I will have to upgrade our home's defenses a bit. Maybe make a mine field….."

"Just don't go overboard," Temari remarked, amused. "Say, how about we get some ice cream?"

Naruto brightened up a little. "I could use some ice cream."

XXXXXXX

"Looks like the Kyuubi jinchuriki has grown quite powerful than our last encounter. Don't you think so, Itachi-san?"

"Hn."

Itachi gave the typical Uchiha response to his partner's question. He was silently glad, however, that Naruto had stopped Sasuke from reaching Orochimaru. Nothing good would come out of that.

Now he didn't need to worry about Sasuke on top of keeping the village safe from outside.

XXXXXXX

Naruto arrived on top of his father's head. He felt him before he saw him, looking over the village. "An unusual spot for you to choose to meet up."

Jiraiya smiled in melancholy. "I guess you could say that."

Both of them stood side by side as they overlooked the village. It was a while before Jiraiya told him why he called him here. "Akatsuki has been moving."

"Oh?"

Jiraiya nodded seriously. "Right now, they don't seem to be going after any of the bijuu. My sources have told me that they are building their capital right now, leaving the jinchuriki as they are, for now."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "Why are you telling me this?"

Jiraiya looked at him with grim eyes, looking his age for the first time in a long time. "Naruto, you are my apprentice, regardless of your summoning contract. You are Konoha's greatest asset, but most importantly, you are my godson. And I refuse to just sit by when someone is after my godson's life."

Naruto folded his hands. Jiraiya had never been this serious with him, but Akatsuki was serious business. A group of S-rank missing nin was no joke at all, and their goal could twist the very way the world operated. "What do you want me to do then?"

For the first time in their conversation, Jiraiya smirked. "I want you to come on a training trip with me."

Naruto took a deep breath as he turned back to the village. A training trip with Jiraiya…

There was so much he could learn from the man. But first, "How long would the trip last?"

"Three years."

Naruto pursed his lips. "Why three years?"

"You see, I have received reports that Orochimaru has switched bodies once again, which is strange considering how much he wanted Sasuke's body. Now that he has, however, he won't be changing bodies for another three years. Here's the kick though- at the same time Orochimaru has decided to go underground, so have the Akatsuki as well. This gives you a nice, three year window to get stronger, strong enough to not worry about them.

"I plan to make you capable of defending yourself and your loved ones in that time. When I'm finished with you, you will be one of the most dangerous men in all the nations."

Naruto exhaled and sat down on a spike beside his godfather, face contemplative. "While that sounds terribly tempting, I would have to leave my wife behind. And you know well enough just how big of a target she is due to her relationship with me. Many things could happen to her, and I can't take that risk."

"Then it's a good thing that she won't be in the village, right?"

Naruto's head snapped to Jiraiya, confusion written on his face. "What do you mean?"

Jiraiya smirked as he took out a scroll and handed it over to Naruto. He opened it to see a map of the elemental nations, but a particular path had been highlighted. The path began from Konoha and ended in the mountains between Hot water country and the Land of ice. It marked a particular spot over there, in a red circle.

"What's this?"

Jiraiya puffed out his chest. "Well, I knew that you would not agree to leave your wife behind, so I came up with an alternative. The spot marked in the red circle is the home of a retired warrior named Ankita Ryu, who specializes in the usage of war fans. Your wife probably knows of her. She can use them unlike anyone I've seen, and trust me, shinobi of Suna don't even compare to her. What I mean to say is, while we are on our training trip, your wife could embark on her own training trip as well."

Naruto glared at his godfather and was about to snap at him when he paused. That actually sounded like a considerable idea.

Jiraiya's hopes went up on seeing Naruto actually thinking about it. "What do you think?"

"And just what makes you think that she will accept my wife as her pupil?"

Jiraiya crossed his arms and smirked in a triumphant way. "Well, recommendation from a Sannin, for one. Her relationship with you, secondly. Connections are important, after all. And last, her latent talent. She is already very much skilled in the usage of her war fan, and if she trains with Ryu, she will probably become the most dangerous wind user in the entire nations at a very young age. You do want her to be strong enough to protect herself without you, right?"

Naruto nodded, rolling the idea in his head. After a few minutes of thinking, Naruto replied, "I'll have to talk to my wife about this. And I'll agree to the training trip only if we escort her to this lady first."

Jiraiya thrust out his hand. "Deal."

Naruto nodded after shaking hands. "Deal. And also, when are we leaving? Because I need to talk to baa-chan and Sasuke before we do."

Jiraiya looked conflicted, but gave a resigned sigh at that. "I wanted for us to leave as soon as possible, but if you need to talk to Sasuke, we can only leave after five days. What is it that you want to talk to him about anyways?"

Naruto brightened up, completely ignoring Jiraiya's question. "Great!" _'Though I wonder what Temari will have to say about us separating so early after our marriage, for three years at that.'_

He stood up, rolling his shoulders. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

He was gone in a flash after that, causing Jiraiya to scoff. "Show off."

XXXXXXX

Five days later, Sasuke was finally moved from intensive care. While he just laid on the hospital bed, only one thought flashed across his mind.

How Naruto beat him.

He had been thinking pretty deeply about how he had been beaten by his former comrade. Why was he beaten? Was his reason for fighting not strong enough? Was his hatred not strong enough?

He slowly clenched his fists as he fought down his frustration. Now that he was in Konoha, it would be a long time before he would be allowed to go after Itachi, and that too if he was lucky.

'_I'm so weak…..'_

"I wouldn't say that."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open at the voice. "What are you doing here?"

Naruto sat down in the seat. "I came to talk to you, Sasuke."

Sasuke closed his eyes as emotions threatened to overwhelm him. "We have nothing to talk about, Naruto. You can leave."

But Naruto was persistent, like always. "Yes we do. As much as I would like to say that your actions were the result of the influence of the curse seal, they weren't. You were genuinely trying to kill me. Why?"

Sasuke opened his eyes to gaze at the ceiling. "You won't get an answer out of me, Naruto."

Naruto sighed despondently. "Sasuke, I know that you have the answer to my question. What have I ever done to you for you to try and kill me like that?"

"...Because you were in my way. Orochimaru was offering a way to gain power so I can kill my brother, which Konoha would never give me. That is my goal in life, and no one will stop me from achieving it, not even you."

"You mean to say that revenge is more important to you than your comrades, than your bonds with them?"

"Yes."

There was no hesitancy in his answer, and that stunned Naruto. Sasuke didn't give a crap about anything else other than killing Itachi. Naruto was hoping that Sasuke would at least consider before giving the answer, but he was wrong. To Sasuke, nothing mattered except for killing Itachi. Not anymore.

Changing topics to avoid the grief he was feeling, he said, "Your punishment has been decided."

For just a moment, Sasuke was afraid. He was afraid that he would die before he killed Itachi. But he pushed it down and asked instead, "What is it?"

"Six months of imprisonment, followed by six months of suspension from the forces, and six months of duty with probation."

Well, Sasuke couldn't say that he was entirely surprised. Given how desperate the village was when it came to the sharingan, they won't be willing to lose the only pair of eyes they had left. Still, better than being killed.

But this could turn in his favor if he played this right. "I see."

"Don't make revenge your defining purpose in life, Sasuke. It will bring you nothing but emptiness, Sasuke. Mark my words, killing your brother would bring you not satisfaction, but anguish."

Naruto got up from his seat and moved to the door, but before he could touch it, Sasuke's voice stopped him. "Naruto."

Naruto turned his head sideways, signaling that he was listening. "When will you come next time to visit?"

Naruto smiled wistfully as he turned around. "I won't be coming back for three years, Sasuke. I'm leaving for a training trip with Jiraiya."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Then know this- Konoha will not hold me for the entirety of my punishment. I will escape, and I will gain power to kill my brother. Three years later, when we meet again and we _will…._we shall meet as equals. That I can promise."

He then continued in a much softer tone, surprising the blonde with the vulnerability in his voice. "Naruto…..you are the only person in this village who understands me, and you are the only person in this village that is the closest thing to a friend. You may think what you want for me is for the best, but it's not. Itachi's death will give me the closure I need.

"The least you can do, is let me have it."

Naruto didn't know what to say to that. On one hand, he could tell this to Tsunade, and ensure that security is even tighter so that Sasuke doesn't escape. On the other, Sasuke would _never _beg like this. It was somewhat sad and pitiful that Sasuke seemed to think that his main purpose in this world was to kill his brother.

But it wasn't his place to decide what he _could _do. Sasuke's punishment had already been decided. But Sasuke's promise…there was something in those words that made Naruto take him seriously. Perhaps it was a good thing for Sasuke that Naruto was alone in his visit.

He turned and looked directly into Sasuke's eyes, his eyes twinkling with an unknown feeling. "Don't give Hokage-sama a reason to finish you off for the sole reason that the sharingan is more trouble than it's worth."

Sasuke scoffed and looked away. "Oh, and Sasuke!"

Sasuke turned his head towards the door to see Naruto looking at him seriously, with the barest hint of a smirk. "About that day where you said we will meet as equals," Sasuke narrowed his eyes, curious about what Naruto would say, "I look forward to it."

Naruto left after that.

Sasuke snorted softly, turning his head away. Naruto's position as jonin may not allow him to help him, but he was pretty sure that he just received Naruto's blessings to escape from this village. Naruto knew just as well as he did that Sasuke would only become Naruto's equal if he would be able train that hard, and it damn sure wasn't going to be in _this_ village.

"I hope you're ready that day…..Naruto."

XXXXXXX

Orochimaru sat on his chair, thinking deeply. Kabuto's report had upset him greatly. He had never foreseen this event, so now he had to decide upon an alternate initiative.

He had to have Sasuke's body, and no doubt, Sasuke would be under heavy guard, now that he was back in the village. Worse, he had no way to know of any happenings inside the village, since Kabuto was his only spy in there.

It was starting to look like he would have to play the waiting game, and he did not like to wait.

This required some heavy thought.

XXXXXXX

It was night, and Naruto and Temari were relaxing on their bed. Naruto was gazing forwards with such intensity that it worried Temari a bit. His left hand was resting around her shoulder, his finger gently rubbing small circles on her side. Temari was resting on his chest, but most of her attention was on her husband.

Finally, she huffed and sat up, straddling Naruto and breaking him from his trance. "Alright, you've been acting a bit out of it ever since you came home from the hospital, and it's been driving me crazy. What is it?"

Naruto gazed at his wife with adoration as his hands went up to stroke her sides under her t-shirt. "It's actually not that big of a thing. Me and Sasuke talked, that's all."

Temari poked him in the chest and dryly pointed out, "If it wasn't that big, you won't be slipping into trances ever now and then. Now spill, what has got you so worked up."

Naruto smirked and sat up, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around her form, planting kisses on her neck. "My sweet wife is so caring towards me. Just what did I do to deserve you?"

Temari moaned as she tried to resist. "Don't try to change the topic- _ngh!"_

To her partial disappointment and approval, he stopped and sighed. "It's just…..Sasuke made a promise to me today."

"Oh?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. He said that he will escape, and when we meet three years later, we will meet as equals."

Temari's eyes widened. "He told you that he would escape?! Have you told Tsunade?!"

Naruto gently grabbed her shoulders and shook his head. "Temari, you don't get what I'm saying. He said that he will escape, though I have confidence in our ANBU."

Temari frowned at him. "Then what do you mean?"

"We both know, that is, me and Sasuke, that this village will never give Sasuke the power he needs to kill his brothers. For him to say that we will be equals after three years…..that means that he will have to go back to Orochimaru to gain that sort of power. But even that's not the issue."

Temari took a deep breath. It was rare for her to see Naruto so troubled, but she was beginning to get the gist of his and Sasuke's relationship. From what Naruto had told her, Sasuke considered him the closest thing he had to a friend. Naruto felt the same, but he didn't hold so much negativity. He wanted to help Sasuke, be by his side, and prevent him from going down a rabbit hole from which return is impossible.

"Then what is?"

Naruto gazed into her eyes that told her how much havoc his thoughts were in. "Is it wrong for me to feel that I look forward to that day? That I want him to return to Orochimaru so that he can gain power to become my equal?"

Naruto sighed and held Naruto's hands. "Naruto, only you and Sasuke understand the bond that exists between you. If you look from a standpoint of a shinobi of Konoha, it certainly borders, no, _is _treason. But if you look at it as a…well, let's say rivals, then perhaps it benefits your friend."

She stroked his cheek with her thumb. "Sasuke is driven not just by his desire to kill his brother, but to be better than you. You motivate him to get stronger so that he could look at you, eye to eye. And that is perfectly normal behavior for rivals. They push each other to get stronger. Sasuke wants you to see him not as a subordinate, but someone who is equal to you."

Naruto averted his eyes from hers in thought. "Maybe you're right. Sasuke's promise is what will drive me, along with getting strong enough to protect you."

Temari smiled at that. She found it endearing that Naruto wanted to be strong enough for _her. _

"Speaking of training, are you sure that you want to undergo training from that lady?"

Temari rolled her eyes. "Yes, I do! I don't see what has gotten you so worked up about that. Most people would give an arm and a leg to be trained by her. She is a legend in the land of the wind. Do you know what she can do with her fans? It's said that she can create entire-"

Naruto smiled and raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine! Now that that is decided, how about we have some fun?"

He kissed her, pulling her flush against him. She responded enthusiastically, wrapping her arms around his neck. Naruto pulled both of them down on the bed, his hands going down her back.

Their activities would continue late into the night.

XXXXXXX

Naruto and Temari were standing at the village gates, making out against the wall. Strictly speaking, Tsunade had talked with them that should they ever be paired together for a mission, they were to act professionally, not as love-struck idiots. But then again, Naruto was on temporary leave along with his wife, so their actions were justified.

At least that's what Naruto seemed to think.

Izumo and Kotetsu fingered their collar as they failed to avert their eyes from the pair. "Man, they sure are going at it full steam, don't you think?"

Kotetsu shook his head. "No, my friend. If they wanted to go full steam, they would be in their bedroom, not here."

"See, that is how you take care of a woman!"

Any shout like that would have made any couple spring apart with surprise, but not Naruto and Temari. Naruto just slowly broke their lip contact, turning to look at a Jiraiya who looked like he would burst with joy, a smirking Tsunade and an eye-smiling Kakashi, who was positively beaming.

Naruto put some distance between himself and Temari, shrugging innocently. It was rather surprising how quickly his face was cleared of its blush. "You got late, so we just decided to pass the time."

Temari's blush was still receding, but she just huffed and swatted his arm. "There's no we. It was your idea! You were the one who jumped on me!"

"And yet you completely failed to resist," Naruto easily returned, smugness increasing along with her blush.

Jiraiya could feel his manliness starting to slip away. _'Even if Minato was never this bold with Kushina, he didn't fail to pass along his penchant for mushiness,' _he lamented.

Outwardly, he cleared his throat. "Ahem! Well, let's be going brats! We need to reach the mountains in less than a week."

Though he flinched when Tsunade glared at him. "Shut up!"

Though her face turned into a soft smile when she turned to Naruto and Temari. She drew the former into a hug. "Now, you take good care of yourself, Naruto. Eat properly, and don't work yourself into exhaustion every time you train."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he returned the hug. "I'll try my best, but no promises."

Tsunade punched his arm lightly, then turned to Temari and drew her into a hug. "Do take care of yourself, Temari, and try to come back before three years are up. This idiot here needs you more than he shows."

"Hey!"

Temari was surprised when Tsunade hugged her, but returned it nonetheless. "I will, Hoka- Tsunade. Someone needs to keep him in check, after all."

Naruto crossed his arms and pouted to the side. "I swear, I'm being attacked today."

Tsunade released the hug and stepped back. Kakashi stepped forward, eye smiling. "Get strong, and maybe we can have a one-on-one match."

Naruto scoffed, a challenging glint in his eyes. "Trust me Kakashi, when I return, you won't stand a chance against me."

"We'll see Naruto, we'll see."

With that, they waved goodbye one last time and turned away, walking away from the village.

'_So Kurama, now that we've got a whole three years to ourselves, how are you going to train me?'_

Kurama hummed in thought before replying. **'These three years will be a good opportunity to train you to master my chakra. I will push you hard, Naruto. And mastering of each tail will only get more difficult as you progress, especially from the fourth tail.'**

'…_..I see.'_

'**Which is why you'll train to master my chakra in the fox realm. I will be able to teach you better over there, and you will have comparatively less difficulty in mastering my chakra over there.'**

'_Why? Is there something that will aid me.'_

'**Something like that.'**

Kurama's vague reply caused him to raise an eyebrow. Just how special was the realm of the foxes?

Jiraiya asks once they were out of Konoha's view. "So kid, how do you feel about leaving your home for three years?"

Naruto looks at Temari once and looks back, smiling wistfully. "Honestly? It feels like the end of an era."

He looked up to the sky, as if speaking to it. "I will become as strong as I can, because you are my limit."

**AN: And here is where it ends. The story is officially over, and what a journey it has been! Really glad to have had readers like you all! The sequel to this story won't begin until a long time now, so goodbye, and take care. Kamikaze132 out!**

**P.S: That one-shot will take some time.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Author's Note: Alright! This story is finally finished, and I hope everyone enjoyed it! I'll come straight to the point- the sequel. The sequel to this story is officially up, called the Ascendance of the Flash. This update is posted for those who are following this story and not my account. I've read the comments and people are literally begging for the sequel. **

**Summary, the sequel is up for all the hungry eyes that want it! Kamikaze132 out!**


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